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THE    NEW    HARMONY 
MOVEMENT 


BY 


GEORGE   B.   LOCKWOOD 


With  the  Collaboration  of  Charles  A.  Prosser 
in  the  preparation  of  the  Educational  Chapters 


NEW    YORK 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1905 


Copyright,  1905,  by 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COJttPANY 


Published  May,  1905 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   COMMUNITIES 

COPYRIGHT,    1902,    BY   GEORGE   B.    LOCKWOOD 


INTRODUCTION 


What  is  called  in  this  book  the  "  New  Harmony  Move- 
ment "  forms  a  noteworthy  practical  lesson  in  sociology — 
in  that  part  of  sociology  which  treats  of  the  isms  of  that 
important  science. 

In  the  institutions  of  civilization  we  count  four  car- 
dinal types — the  family,  civil  society  with  its  division  of 
labor,  the  state,  the  church.  The  two  extremes — the  fam- 
ily and  the  church — ^give  us,  on  the  one  hand,  the  first  de- 
parture from  the  individual  with  his  narrow  experience, 
and  on  the  other  the  arrival  at  the  highest  reenforcement 
by  the  race  or  the  social  whole.  The  family,  although 
nearest  to  the  unassisted  individual,  does  not  for  that  very 
reason  permit  much  development  of  individuality.  Its 
principle  is  obedience  to  elders,  and  especially  to  parents 
and  naturally  constituted  guides.  A  high  degree  of  self- 
activity  and  independence  is  not  found  possible  in  this 
institution,  because  blind  obedience  is  irrational. 

As  compared  with  the  family,  civil  society  with  its 
division  of  labor  gives  greater  opportunity  for  the  devel- 
opment of  individuality.  The  individual  through  his  vo- 
cation contributes  something  to  supply  the  wants  of  his 
community.  He  makes  some  article  or  performs  some 
function  that  is  useful  to  the  social  whole,  and  thereby 
lays  his  community  under  obligation  to  him  and  gets  rec- 
ognition for  his  service.  He  has  proved  himself  essential 
to  the  society  in  which  he  lives,  and  society  hastens  to  set 
before  him,  for  the  supply  of  his  own  particular  needs, 
the  aggregate  production  of  all  the  units  of  society.     It 


(jir)i)2i 


INTRODUCTION 

does  this  through  and  by  means  of  the  market  wherein 
his  own  product  is  measured  with  the  products  of  others, 
and  he  gets  a  quid  pro  quo. 

In  civil  society,  therefore,  the  individual  manifests 
his  differences  and  idiosyncrasies,  and  gets  them  recog- 
nized and  approved  by  the  whole  community.  And,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  gets  his  needs  and  wants,  his  defects 
and  peculiarities,  supplemented  and  provided  for  by  his 
fellow  men.  Their  capacities  and  idiosyncrasies  make  up 
for  his  deficiencies,  just  as  he  makes  up  for  their  deficien- 
cies to  the  extent  of  his  own  real  power.  Hence  society 
seems  to  be,  in  one  respect,  a  larger  individual,  an  insti- 
tutional person;  more  perfect  than  the  particular  indi- 
vidual because  it  contains  all  the  strengths  united  into 
one  great  social  strength,  the  defects  and  weaknesses  elimi- 
nated by  mutual  compensation. 

The  state  is  the  individuality  of  this  greater  human 
self  which  comes  to  exist  through  the  division  of  labor 
and  the  process  of  compensation.  It  subordinates  the  in- 
dividual to  the  social  will.  And  it  does  this  not  only  in 
respect  to  the  property  and  belongings  of  the  individual, 
but  in  reference  to  his  liberty  and  his  very  life  itself.  It 
uses  the  individual  and  his  property  to  protect  the  life  and 
property  of  the  whole,  but  by  this  negative  process  it 
secures  the  positive  result  of  the  protection  of  life  and 
liberty  to  all  its  citizens.  The  individual  is  reenforced 
by  the  strength  of  his  whole  nation,  and  thus  achieves  an 
individuality  altogether  transcendent  as  compared  to  that 
which  he  realized  in  the  family,  or  even  in  his  industrial 
vocation.  We  are  ascending  a  ladder  toward  emancipa- 
tion from  natural  limits,  and  toward  achievement  of  a 
colossal  individuality — family,  industrial  vocation,  citizen- 
ship in  a  nation. 

There  is  one  step  of  higher  emancipation.  The  three 
institutions  just  considered  are  worldly.  The  church  is 
the   other-worldly   institution   which   has   for   its   object 

vi 


INTRODUCTION 

emancipation  from  the  thraldom  of  space  and  time  by 
revealing  to  man  his  origin  and  his  final  purpose  in  the 
divine  order  of  the  universe.  Man  as  a  moral  being  be- 
longs to  an  other-worldly  realm.  In  the  church  he  cele- 
brates his  discoveries  of  the  divine  order,  and  founds  upon 
them  a  higher  emancipation  from  the  shortcomings  and 
imperfections,  the  restraints  and  limitations,  of  mere 
nature. 

These  are  the  four  rounds  in  the  ladder  of  civilization. 
The  mere  individual  outside  of  these  four  institutions  of 
civilization  exists  in  a  state  of  rudimental  freedom.  A 
state  of  Eobinson  Crusoe  isolation  is  the  lowest  order  of 
rational  life.  Crusoe  finds  himself  dependent  on  the  prod- 
ucts of  nature  for  his  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  but  is 
without  organized  means  for  the  subjugation  of  nature. 
Hence  he  lives  from  hand  to  mouth  and  subject  to  all 
the  vicissitudes  that  visit  his  habitat  in  and  out  of  season. 
He  exists  also  in  a  state  of  war,  not  only  against  natural 
forces  but  of  one  savage  man  against  other  savage  men. 
Progress  out  of  these  evil  conditions  will  demand  social 
organization  through  the  four  institutions  which  we  have 
been  considering.  These  will  emancipate  his  individual- 
ity and  bring  him  beyond  the  stage  of  animal  likes  and 
dislikes  to  the  stage  in  which  is  revealed  to  him  deeper 
and  deepest  ideas  of  reason  and  higher  and  highest  attain- 
ments of  freedom  and  achievement. 

By  these  institutions  he  will  get  command  not  only  of 
bread  for  his  body,  but  of  high  positions  of  influence  and 
power  among  his  fellow  men;  above  this,  he  will  attain 
insights  into  the  science  of  nature  and  into  the  structure 
of  the  moral  order  of  society;  the  gradual  unfoldment  of 
human  nature  in  the  history  of  civilizations ;  insights  into 
the  art  and  literature  of  the  most  gifted  peoples.  Heading 
all  things  in  the  light  of  the  highest  principle,  he  will 
receive  what  is  better  than  bread,  or  than  dominion  over 
nature  and  man,  or  than  insights  into  special  realms  of 

vii 


INTRODUCTION 

truth.     Emerson,  in  his  poem  The  Days,  celebrates  the 
gifts  which  the  days  bring  to  man: 

"  To  each  they  offer  gifts  after  his  will, 
Bread,  kingdoms,  stars,  and  sky  that  holds  them  all." 

Emerson  has  indicated  in  his  poem  progressive  steps 
of  emancipation  of  individuality.  Bread  gives  freedom 
from  the  wants  of  the  body;  kingdoms  the  sway  over  our 
environment  of  nature  and  human  society — wealth  and 
high  station;  stars  the  several  insights  and  skills  which 
give  us  a  deeper  self-knowledge  and  the  artistic  power 
needed  for  the  poet  and  the  sage ;  and  "  the  sky  that  holds 
them  all "  is  the  religious  view  or  philosophic  view  of  the 
divine  which  is  presupposed  by  all  these  gifts. 

It  happens  that  partial  insights  into  the  good  and  the 
evil  of  institutions  create  sects  of  reformers  who  seek  to 
eradicate  one  institution  by  another.  They  would  substi- 
tute civil  society  for  the  family  and  for  the  state.  Com- 
munism or  socialism  undertakes  to  do  this,  and  the  fail- 
ure of  this  view  of  the  world  is  illustrated  in  a  great 
variety  of  phases  in  the  history  of  New  Harmony,  both 
in  the  experiment  of  the  Eappites  and  in  the  longer  and 
fuller  experiment  of  Eobert  Owen  and  his  successors. 

The  Eappites,  as  pointed  out  by  the  author  of  this 
history,  were  religious  comniunists.  Eapp  himself  was 
prophet,  priest,  and  king.  As  is  usual  in  this  kind  of 
communism,  one  prophet  excludes  all  other  prophets.  He 
prevents  his  disciples  from  growing  into  prophets,  or,  in- 
deed, from  undertaking  any  original  thinking  or  planning. 
Originality,  if  encouraged,  would  soon  destroy  the  com- 
munity. Morris  Birkbeck  is  quoted  as  saying :  "  Strangers 
visit  their  establishment  and  retire  from  it  full  of  ad- 
miration; but  a  slavish  acquiescence,  under  a  disgusting 
superstition,  is  so  remarkable  an  ingredient  in  their  char- 
acter that  it  checks  all  desire  of  imitation." 

With  Eapp's  community,  the  ideal  disciple  was  an 

viii 


INTRODUCTION 

obedient  slave.  Governed  by  a  man  who  understood  busi- 
ness, like  Frederick  Eapp,  labor  could  be  well  organized 
and  the  earnings  could  be  accumulated  in  the  strong  chest 
of  the  prophet  and  king.  But  in  this  case,  the  institution 
which  we  have  called  civil  society  does  not  get  established 
in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  individual  freedom.  The 
Roman  idea  of  property  emancipates  the  individual  from 
the  patriarchal  ties  of  the  family  and  develops  individual 
initiative,  but  New  Harmony  suppressed  the  individual 
initiative  and  secured  obedience  to  the  priest  and  king. 

Thus  the  church  admitted  civil  society  only  in  its 
serfdom,  and  not  in  its  freedom.  But  the  church,  in  this 
experiment,  abolishes  not  only  civil  society  in  its  aspect  of 
individual  initiative,  substituting  the  family  principle  of 
patriarchal  rule,  but  in  turn  it  abolishes  the  family  out- 
right by  introducing  the  principle  of  celibacy.  And  by 
this  it  saws  off  the  limb  on  which  the  whole  community 
depends.  Moreover,  such  a  community  is  incompatible 
with  the  state  except  in  its  most  rudimentary  form  of 
the  tribe.  No  neighboring  town  or  coimty  could  trust 
the  New  Harmony  citizens  in  a  political  election  because 
they  were  puppets  moved  by  a  king  inspired  by  other- 
worldly interests  and  firmly  keeping  aloof  from  the  in- 
terests of  the  county  and  the  State  of  Indiana  and  the 
nation.  There  was  in  store  for  this  community,  when 
the  Indiana  Territory  should  become  populous,  an  exter- 
minating persecution  at  the  hands  of  a  mob  like  that 
which  drove  Mormonism  out  of  Xauvoo  in  later  years. 
Its  return  to  Pennsylvania  anticipated  the  catastrophe. 
Religious  communism  attacks  family,  civil  society,  and 
state  in  the  developed  form  which  these  institutions  take 
on  in  modern  civilization. 

The  second  form  of  community,  that  of  Mr.  Owen, 
which  came  to  be  established  at  New  Harmony,  was  in 
some  respects  the  opposite  of  the  religious  community  that 
had  preceded  it.     It  established  itself  in  the  name  of  a 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 

civil  society  more  or  less  opposed  to  the  famil}^,  more  or 
less  opposed  to  the  state,  and,  above  all,  opposed  to  the 
church.  The  strict  regulations  penetrating  to  the  private 
life  of  the  Owenite  communist  remind  us  of  the  Rappite 
community  of  the  prophet  and  priest,  and  so  also  does 
the  control  of  labor  by  a  one-man  power  and  the  cover- 
ing of  all  production  into  the  common  storehouses,  and 
in  this  it  contradicted  the  ideal  of  the  civil  communitj^ 
smothered  individual  initiative  and  arrested  the  train- 
ing of  the  population  into  civil  freedom.  Owen  might 
desire  to  have  original  initiative  develop  in  the  individuals 
of  his  community.  And  his  establishment  of  common- 
school  education  shows  that  he  was  almost  entirely  un- 
conscious of  the  meaning  of  the  division  of  labor  as  a 
function  of  the  institution  of  civil  society.  He  seemed 
to  think  that  not  only  could  the  laborer  forswear  self- 
activity  in  planning  as  well  as  executing,  but  even  could 
be  aroused  by  school  education  without  the  danger  of  feel- 
ing the  absolute  need  for  the  exercise  of  original  initiative 
in  his  trade  and  vocation. 

Involved  in  this  contradiction,  his  communistic  experi- 
ment could  not  flourish,  and  did  not  flourish.  The  relig- 
ious community,  after  the  death  of  its  prophet,  gradually 
changed  into  a  civil  community. 

The  lesson  forced  on  us  by  these  two  experiments  is 
the  necessitv  for  each  of  the  four  institutions,  and  the 
limitation  of  each  through  the  other.  If,  in  the  name 
of  one  of  these  institutions,  an  attempt  is  made  to  suppress 
another  institution,  the  attempt  destroys  the  whole  ex- 
periment. For  each  institution,  in  order  to  be  complete, 
demands  the  creation  of  the  other  institutions  in  their 
full  development.  If  the  dominant  institution  endeavors 
to  create  for  itself  the  other  institutions,  it  dwarfs  them 
or  mutilates  them. 

The  lack  of  a  religious  faith  in  the  Owen  experiment 
made  impossible  on  the  part  of  the  other  citizens  of  Indi- 


INTRODUCTION 

ana  the  cooperation  necessary  for  an  influential  citizen- 
ship in  the  State.  The  outside  citizens  could  never  fore- 
cast what  practical  cooperation  in  their  policy  might  be 
secured  from  the  Owen  community.  Hence  they  sus- 
pected even  the  best  measures  proposed  by  Robert  Dale 
Owen  in  the  constitutional  convention  and  in  the  legis- 
lature. They  were  afraid  that  his  well-known  opinions 
regarding  the  church  concealed  some  latent  mischief  which 
would  come  out  as  an  injury  to  the  commonwealth  sooner 
or  later  if  adopted,  and  hence  arose  some  of  the  opposi- 
tion against  the  legislation  which  he  proposed  in  behalf 
of  so  good  a  cause  as  that  of  public  free  schools. 

Public  free  schools  have  a  tendency  to  develop  the 
power  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  line  of  original  initia- 
tive. The  school  enables  them  to  see  not  only  things  as 
they  are,  but  to  compare  them  with  the  scientific  and  his- 
torical ideals  of  what  they  ought  to  be.  They  can  see 
possibilities  of  the  manufacture  of  useful  machinery  in 
l3eds  of  ore  and  forests  of  timber;  they  can  see  the  possi- 
bility of  mills  for  textile  manufacture  or  for  manufactures 
of  hardware  in  the  waterfalls  of  their  rivers.  Armed  with 
science,  the  mind  is  able  to  make  mechanic  inventions. 
All  classes  of  citizens  gain  in  directive  power  by  means 
of  the  studies  of  the  school.  But  the  citizens  of  Indiana 
looked  upon  the  experiment  of  communism  at  New  Har- 
mony as  in  the  direction  of  suppressing  individual  initia- 
tive and  the  substitution  of  a  one-man  power  for  inde- 
pendent ownership  of  real  estate  and  personal  property, 
and  for  independent  freedom  of  choice. 

If  Robert  Dale  Owen  had  described  the  true  effects 
of  school  education  in  the  line  of  freedom  of  property 
and  independent  initiative,  he  would  have  recommended 
his  scheme  for  free  public  schools  more  effectively  than 
he  was  able  to  do  as  the  representative  of  a  communistic 
experiment,  for  his  communism  preached  a  silent  lesson 
in  contradiction  to  his  plea  for  free  schools.     And  his 

xi 


INTRODUCTION 

opposition  to  the  churches  established  in  the  several  towns 
and  villages  of  Indiana  aroused  that  deepest  and  most 
bitter  of  all  opposition,  the  opposition  founded  on  diver- 
gence of  theological  views,  divergence  as  to  the  funda- 
mental view  which  one  takes  of  the  meaning  of  the  world 
of  nature  and  of  human  destiny.  This  hostility  of  the 
people  of  Indiana  to  measures  which  were  really  greatly 
for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  State  is  a  very  interesting 
feature  in  this  history,  and  it  is  very  clearly  pointed  out 
by  the  author  in  this  book. 

The  work  of  Maclure  in  the  school  at  New  Harmony, 
and  afterward  as  publicist,  deserves  study  on  its  own  ac- 
count. He  brought  industrial  instruction  into  his  school, 
and  laid  so  much  stress  on  the  mechanical  features  of  edu- 
cation that  he  in  a  great  measure  neutralized  the  effect  of 
the  school  on  the  characters  of  his  pupils,  for  he  more  or 
less  turned  off  the  minds  of  his  pupils  from  those  studies 
which  give  original  initiative,  and  turned  them  in  the  di- 
rection of  ma^tters  of  skill  and  routine  practise.  In  these 
days  of  attempts  in  the  direction  of  manual  training  and 
other  industrial  education,  the  experiment  of  Maclure  and 
its  results  on  the  people  of  New  Harmony  deserve  the 
most  careful  consideration.  How  much  directive  power 
came  from  his  instruction  in  the  way  of  industrial  prepa- 
ration ?  How  much  directive  power  in  the  way  of  enabling 
his  pupils  to  understand  and  cooperate  with  their  fellow 
men  in  other  parts  of  Indiana  and  the  United  States  in 
later  life? 

I  am  greatly  impressed  with  the  value  of  this  work 
as  a  study  for  teachers  ever5r«^here,  and  would  commend 
its  careful  study  especially  to  the  great  storm-centers  of 
social  agitation,  such  as  the  cities  of  Chicago,  Boston,  and 
San  Francisco,  for  example. 

W.  T.  Harris. 
Washington,  D.  C,  April  20,  1905. 


Xll 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION V 

By  Hon.  W,  T.  Harris,  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Education. 

CHAPTER 

I. — New  Harmony's  Place  in  History     ....  1 

II. — The  Rise  of  the  Rappites 7 

III. — The  Rappites  in  Indiana 15 

IV. — The  Rappite  Hegira 30 

V. — Robert  Owen  and  the  Industrial  Revolution        .  43 

VI. — Agitation  in  England 53 

VII. — The  New  Moral  World 59 

VIII. — The  Founding  of  New  Harmony        ....  69 

IX. — The  Preliminary  Society 82 

X.— "The  Half-way  House" 92 

XI. — The  "  Permanent  Community  " 103 

XII. — The  Social  System  on  Trial 112 

XIII. — ^The  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar  at  New  Harmony.        .  123 

XIV. — Two  Views  of  New  Harmony 134 

XV. — Community  Progress 141 

XVI. — Community  Disintegration 156 

XVII. — Robert  Owen's  Farewell  Addresses.        .        .        .  166 
X^''III. — The  Ten  Lost  Tribes  of  Communism  .                .        .174 

xiii 


/ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIX. — Woman  at  New  Harmony 186 

XX. — The  Educational  Experiment     .....  209 

XXI. — JosiAH  Warren 294 

XXII. — Eobert  Owen's  Later  Life 307 

XXIII. — New  Harmony's  Later  History 314 

XXIV. — The  Maclure  Library  Movement       ....  332 

XXV.— Robert  Dale  Owen 336 

APPENDIX:  SOURCES 379 

INDEX 387 


XIV 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Community  House  No.  2 Frontispiece. 

Scene  of  the  first  successful  American  experiment  in  Pestalozzian 
education. 

George  Rapp's  Residence  and  Granary,  or  Fort    ....      16 
The  house  was  later  occupied  by  the  Owens. 

The  Old  Fort  as  Built 36 

From  a  drawing  by  J.  L.  Parke. 

Robert  Owen 60 

Owen's  Proposed  Village 70 

From  an  old  print. 

Charles  Alexandre  Lesueur 83 

The  Rappite  Church  and  Hall  of  Harmony 104 

A  Typical  Rappite  House 148 

Residence  of  Thomas  Say,  "The  Father  of  American  Zoology." 

Frances  Wright 188 

New  Harmony  during  the  Owen  Occupation        ....    210| 
From  an  old  print. 

Robert  Dale  Owen 224 

Thomas  Say o        .        .        .    236 

Richard  Owen 266 

XV 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Thomas  Say's  Tomb  at  New  Harmony 286 

Josiah  Warren 294 

Labor  Notes  Issued  by  Josiah  Warren  ....    296,  300,  304 
New  Harmony  as  it  now  appears  from  Indian  Mound .        .        .    320 

William  Maclure    . 322 

Robert  Dale  Owen,  September,  1875      .        .        .        .        .        .336 

The  Old  Fort— Present  Condition 360 

Headquarters  United  States  Geological  Survey  under  David  Dale 
Owen.  , 

D.  D.  Owen 372 


XVI 


THE  NEW  HAEMONY  MOVEMENT 


CHAPTER   I 

NEW  harmony's  place  in  history 

On  the  Indiana  side  of  the  Wabash  River,  fifty-one 
miles  above  its  mouth,  the  village  of  New  Harmony  lies 
within  the  shelter  of  a  long  range  of  encircling  hills.  In 
summer  New  Harmony's  dooryards  are  shaded  by  a  veri- 
table forest  of  maple  and  gate  trees,  above  which,  here  and 
there,  rise  the  gables  and  dormer-windowed  roofs  of  quaint 
buildings  suggestive  of  another  country  and  another  cen- 
tury. The  vandal  hand  of  business  enterprise  has  not  been 
heavily  laid  upon  this  place,  and  thus  it  happens  that  the 
New  Harmony  of  to-day  bears  everywhere  the  impress  of  its 
earlier  and  greater  years.  Houses  reared  by  German  com- 
munists in  the  second  decade  of  the  century,  and  in  the 
twenties  occupied  by  members  of  the  Owenite  communi- 
ties, still  stand  in  New  Harmony's  quiet  streets.  A  large 
and  handsomely  housed  public  library,  rich  in  the  heritage 
of  collections  of  books  brought  to  the  place  by  the  scholars 
and  savants  of  community  days — more  than  this,  the  char- 
acter of  the  present  population,  which  includes  a  large 
number  of  the  descendants  of  the  Owenite  communists — 
suggests  a  time  when  New  Harmony  was  the  promised 
land  of  Owenism — a  social  experiment-station  toward 
which  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world  were  turned,  and  not  in 
vain,  if  we  take  into  account  the  several  great  movements 
2  1 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

which  in  later  years  have  made  the  IN'ew  Harmony  failure 
appear  a  wonderful  success. 

Parke  Godwin,  in  his  Popular  View  of  Fourierism, 
divides  social  reformers  into  three  classes  of  "  architects 
of  society,"  as  he  calls  them :  first,  the  pure  theorists,  who 
have  contented  themselves  with  picturing  an  ideal  state 
of  society,  without  suggesting  a  practical  effort  at  its 
attainment,  as  Plato  in  the  Eepublic,  More  in  Utopia, 
Harrington  in  Oceana,  and  Campanella  in  City  of  the 
Sun;  second,  the  practical  architects,  as  the  Eappites,  Mo- 
ravians, and  Shakers,  who,  on  religious  rather  than  on 
economic  grounds,  have  established  societies  in  imitation 
of  the  supposed  communism  of  the  early  Christians;  third, 
the  theoretico-practical  architects,  who  have  combined  the 
enunciation  of  social  theories  with  actual  experiments,  as 
Owen,  Cabet,  Fourier,  and  St.  Simon. 

By  strange  coincidence.  New  Harmony  became  the  scene 
of  the  most  notable  experiments  yet  attempted  by  the 
"  social  architects  "  of  two  of  these  three  classes.  Among 
religious  communists,  the  Eappites,  founders  of  Harmony, 
have  been  most  successful,  and  their  residence  in  Indiana 
marked  the  high  tide  of  their  growth  in  wealth  and  num- 
bers. There  has  not  been  another  trial  of  philosophical 
communistic  association  so  auspiciously  undertaken,  or  so 
thoroughly  carried  to  a  conclusion,  as  that  which  Eobert 
Owen  inaugurated  at  New  Harmony  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  ago.  Brook  Farm  has  occupied  a 
larger  place  in  literature,  but  as  a  serious  effort  at  solving 
the  social  problems  of  its  time,  it  did  not  approach  New 
Harmony  in  importance.  To  New  Harmony,  Brook  Farm 
was  as  a  playground  to  a  workshop.  Brook  Farm  afforded 
temporary  amusement  to  a  congenial  coterie  of  literary 
celebrities  who  cherished  romantic  ideals  in  common,  but 
it  bequeathed  little  to  the  world  except  their  individual 
contributions  to  the  literature  of  that  period.  The  New 
Harmoify  experiment  was  conducted  in  a  less  romantic 

2 


NEW   HARMONY'S  PLACE   IN  HISTORY 

atmosphere,  but  it  was  more  earnest,  thorough,  and  satis- 
fying, and  to  the  modern  student  of  sociology  it  is  more 
significant  as  a  social  venture.  As  Owenism  was  the  fore- 
runner of  Fourierism,  so  New  Harmony  was  the  forerunner 
of  Brook  Farm.  As  Brook  Farm  was  the  center  of  a 
group  of  Fourieristic  phalansteres,  or  colonies,  so  New 
Harmony  was  the  inspiration  of  a  large  number  of  Owenite 
experiments,  scattered  over  so  wide  a  range  of  territory 
that  they  assumed  the  proportions  of  a  national  move- 
ment. Kobert  Owen  declared,  Emerson  says — and  Owen 
is  not  the  only  witness  to  the  fairness  of  his  contention — 
that  Fourier  learned  all  he  knew  of  communism  from  a 
study  of  Owenism.  If  this  be  true,  Brook  Farm  was  only 
a  far-off  reflection  of  the  great  experiment  at  New  Har- 
mony. 

Notable  as  New  Harmony  was  in  its  own  time  as  the 
scene  of  an  ambitious  effort  at  social  regeneration,  the 
perspective  of  years  is  necessary  to  an  adequate  portrayal 
of  its  importance  in  American  history.  The  death-bed  of 
Eobert  Owen's  "social  system"  became  the  birthplace 
of  several  distinct  movements  which  have  assumed  great 
proportions  since  the  story  of  the  New  Harmony  com- 
munisms became  a  half -forgotten  chapter  in  the  history  of 
social  experiments.  There  the  doctrine  of  universal  ele- 
mentary education  at  public  expense,  without  regard  to 
sex  or  sect,  as  a  duty  of  the  State,  was  first  proclaimed 
in  the  Middle  West,  and  through  the  labors  of  Eob- 
ert Dale  Owen,  more  than  any  other  one  man,  this 
conception  of  the  State's  duty  has  found  expression 
in  a  common-school  system  that  is  the  glory  of  the 
Eepublic.  Through  William  Maclure,  Eobert  Owen,  and 
Joseph  Neef,  Pestalozzi's  pupil  and  the  author  of  the 
first  American  works  on  the  science  of  teaching,  the 
Pestalozzian  system  of  education,  now  everywhere  pre- 
dominant, was  first  successfully  transplanted  to  this 
country.     William   Maclure's  manual-training   school  at 

3 


THE   NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

New  Harmony  was  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  United 
States,  and  through  that  institution  and  its  popular  pub- 
lications, the  idea  of  technical  training  was  first  widely 
disseminated  in  this  country.  The  infant  schools  estab- 
lished at  New  Harmony  by  Eobert  Owen,  "the  father  of 
infant  education,"  and  conducted  throughout  the  lifetime 
of  the  communistic  experiments,  were  the  first  of  their  kind 
in  America.  It  was  in  the  schools  at  New  Harmony  that 
the  theory  of  equal  educational  privileges  for  the  sexes  was 
first  put  into  practise,  and  through  Eobert  Dale  Owen,  as 
author,  agitator,  and  legislator,  the  New  Harmony  idea  of 
"  free,  equal,  and  universal  schools  "  exerted  a  determina- 
tive influence  upon  American  institutional  development. 
Through  William  Maclure,  "  the  father  of  American  geol- 
ogy," Thomas  Say,  "  the  father  of  American  zoology," 
Constantine  Eafinesque,  the  pioneer  ichthyologist  of  the 
West,  Charles  Albert  Lesueur,  the  first  classifier  of  the 
fishes  of  the  Great  Lakes,  Gerard  Troost,  one  of  the  earliest 
American  mineralogists,  and  the  younger  Owens,  New  Har- 
mony became  the  greatest  scientific  center  in  America,  and 
the  first  important  scientific  outpost  in  the  West;  there 
came  such  distinguished  students  as  Sir  Charles  Lyell, 
Leo  Lesquereux,  Audubon,  Prince  Alexander  Philip  Maxi- 
milian and  his  company  of  scientists,  P.  B.  Meek,  and  Dr. 
Elderhorst.  New  Harmony  became  the  headquarters  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  with  one  of  its  own 
students,  David  Dale  Owen,  in  charge;  it  was  the  site  of  a 
museum  containing  the  remarkable  collections  of  Say  and 
Maclure,  and  of  a  scientific  library  unexcelled  on  the  con- 
tinent. One  member  of  the  New  Harmony  coterie  of 
savants,  William  Maclure,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  another,  Eob- 
ert Dale  Owen,  became  the  legislative  father  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution.  It  was  in  certain  of  the  New  Harmony 
communities  that  women  were  first  given  a  voice  and  vote 
in  local  legislative  assemblages,  and  there  the  doctrine  of 

4 


NEW   HARMONY'S  PLACE   IN  HISTORY 

equal  political  rights  for  all,  without  regard  to  sex  or  color, 
was  first  proclaimed  by  Frances  Wright.  Through  this 
brilliant  woman,  too,  New  Harmony  became  one  of  the 
earliest  centers  of  the  aboUtion  movement,  and  spoke  for- 
cibly through  Eobert  Dale  Owen  to  President  Lincoln  when 
emancipation  hung  in  the  balance.  Through  Robert  Dale 
Owen,  New  Harmony  impressed  upon  American  law  the 
modern  conception  of  the  legal  rights  of  women,  and  in 
New  Harmony  was  founded,  by  Frances  Wright,  what  is 
known  as  the  first  woman's  literary  club  in  the  United 
States.  The  New  Harmony  Thespian  Society  (1828-'75) 
was  one  of  the  earliest  among  American  dramatic  clubs. 
New  Harmony  in  1826  afforded  the  first  known  American 
example  of  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  by  administra- 
tive edict.  Through  William  Maclure  New  Harmony  gave 
to  the  West  a  system  of  mechanics'  libraries  from  which 
dates  the  beginning  of  general  culture  in  more  than  a 
hundred  and  fifty  western  communities.  Through  Josiah 
Warren  New  Harmony  originated  a  philosophy  of  individ- 
ualism, a  rebound  from  communism,  which  has  had  suffi- 
cient vitality  to  survive  its  author  for  nearly  a  half  century 
and  to  impress  itself  indelibly  upon  modern  economic 
thought;  beyond  this,  it  is  claimed  by  credible  authorities 
that  from  Josiah  Warren,  who  founded  the  New  Harmony 
"  Time  store,"  and  originated  a  system  of  "  labor  notes," 
Robert  Owen  derived  the  central  idea  of  the  great  labor 
cooperative  societies  of  Great  Britain,  which  constitute 
the  most  successful  labor  movement  of  the  last  century. 
Even  the  religious  latitudinarianism  of  the  New  Harmony 
communists,  so  bitterly  denounced  in  its  own  day,  has 
served  as  a  leaven  of  liberality  in  religious  thought  itself, 
until  the  narrow  type  of  religion  which  the  Owenites  so 
steadfastly  opposed  has  in  large  measure  disappeared. 

So  it  is  that  the  little  torch  of  learning  long  ago  kindled 
in  the  wilderness,  made  New  Harmony  a  center  of  light 
and  leading  while  it  was  yet  surrounded  by  "  the  trackless 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

wild."  But  New  Harmony's  place  in  history  has  never 
been  adequately  appreciated^  and  it  is  worth  while,  in  study- 
ing the  Owenite  communities,  to  trace  to  their  source  some 
of  the  movements  which  rose  from  the  ruins  of  the  "  social 
system." 

It  seems  proper  to  preface  a  history  of  the  Owenite  com- 
munities with  a  brief  account  of  the  German  communistic 
colony  which  paved  the  way  for  Robert  Owen's  experiment 
at  New  Harmony,  if  it  did  not  indirectly  suggest  it.  While 
the  Rappite  regime  is  less  interesting,  and  vastly  less  im- 
portant, than  the  Owenite  period,  it  affords  a  strong  back- 
ground for  the  later  experiments,  the  failure  of  George 
Eapp's  success  standing  out  in  vivid  contrast  to  the  suc- 
cess of  Robert  Owen's  failure. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   EISE   OF   THE   RAPPITES 

In  slow  succession  there  passed  through  the  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Wabash — described  by  Col.  George  Croghan 
as  early  as  1765,  as  "  one  of  the  finest  countries  in  the 
world " — the  roving  Indian,  the  Jesuit  missionary,  the 
French  trader,  the  British  redcoat,  the  colonial  soldier,  and 
the  American  pioneer.  But,  strangest  feature  in  all  this 
strange  procession  of  invaders,  there  entered  the  Wabash 
River  one  spring  day  in  1815,  several  boat-loads  of  Wurt- 
temberg  peasants.  Eight  hundred  strong,  clad  in  the  garb 
of  the  Fatherland,  this  quaint  company  went  ashore  at 
a  point  near  the  site  of  the  present  village  of  New  Har- 
mony. They  knelt  on  the  bank  about  a  patriarchal  leader, 
and  with  song  and  prayer  dedicated  "  Harmonic  "  to  the 
uses  of  a  Christian  brotherhood.  These  were  the  Rappites 
— German  peasants,  primitive  Christians,  practical  com- 
munists, and  disciples  of  George  Rapp.  As  an  organized 
protest  against  the  existing  state  of  religion  in  Germany, 
they  had  left  the  shores  of  their  Fatherland  behind  them 
ten  years  before. 

During  the  seventeenth  century  the  German  prototype 
of  Puritanism,  called  Pietism,  had  caused  the  flame  of  faith 
to  burn  brighter  in  the  churches,  through  the  ministra- 
tions of  Spener,  Gerhardt,  Franke,  Arndt,  and  other  Wes- 
leys  and  Whitfields  of  that  revival  movement.  But  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  official  religion  again  degenerated  into 
"  a  multiplicity  of  meaningless  ceremonies."  The  univer- 
sities of  Germany  "  became  hotbeds  of  vice  and  infidelity." 
On  the  one  hand  there  were  in  the  ministry  those  who 

7 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

guarded  against  their  unbelief  by  the  assumption  of  zeal- 
ous bigotry  and  narrow  biblical  construction — on  the  other 
hand  there  were  skeptics  and  rationalists  filling  pulpits  and 
receiving  the  support  of  the  church. 

"  The  church  now,"  says  Hurst,  ^^  presented  a  most  de- 
plorable aspect.  Philosophy  had  come,  with  its  high- 
sounding  terminology,  and  invaded  the  hallowed  precincts 
of  scriptural  truth.  Literature,  with  its  captivating  notes, 
had  well-nigh  destroyed  what  was  left  of  the  old  Pietistic 
fervor.  The  songs  of  the  church  were  no  longer  images 
of  beauty,  but  ghastly,  repulsive  skeletons.  The  professor's 
chair  was  but  little  better  than  a  heathen  tripod.  The 
pulpit  became  a  rostrum,  where  the  shepherdless  masses 
were  entertained  with  essays  on  such  general  terms  as 
'Human  Dignity,'  *^  Truth,'  and  'Light.'  The  peasantry 
received  frequent  and  labored  instruction  on  the  raising  of 
bees,  cattle,  and  fruit.  The  poets  of  the  day  were  publicly 
recited  in  the  temples  where  the  reformers  had  preached." 
X  But  in  certain  portions  of  Germany  the  people  retained 
their  former  simplicity,  and  stoutly  resisted  the  encroach- 
ments of  what  they  considered  wicked  innovations.  Espe- 
cially was  this  true  of  southern  Wiirttemberg,  where  so- 
cieties like  the  early  Methodist  organizations  were  formed 
for  the  conserving  of  piety,  and  a  spirit  of  fanaticism  was 
rampant  which  contrasted  strangely  with  the  rationalism 
prevalent  elsewhere.  There  were  frequent  prophecies  of 
the  end  of  the  world  as  a  punishment  for  the  sins  of  the 
people.  One  party  of  schismatics,  called  Separatists,  dis- 
gusted with  the  new  order  of  things,  set  out  to  found  an 
asylum  in  Eussian  Tartary,  near  the  Caspian  Sea.  Joseph 
Bimeler,  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  following,  denounced 
the  state  as  "  that  great  Babylon,"  and,  with  his  associates, 
refused  to  pay  taxes.  Persecuted  and  frequently  impris- 
oned, Bimeler  finally  led  a  colony  out  of  Germany,  and  on 
five  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Tuscarawas  County,  Ohio, 
founded  "  Zoar."    Here  this  communistic  society  so  pros- 

8 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   BAPPITE8 

pered  that  in  less  than  fifty  years  its  property  was  valued 
at  a  million  dollars. 

Preceding  and  instigating  this  emigration,  however,  was 
that  of  George  Eapp  and  his  followers,  who  sought  the 
religious  freedom  offered  in  the  United  States  as  early  as- 
1803.  George  Eapp  and  Michael  Hahn  were  zealous  lay- 
workers  and  leaders  of  Pietism  in  Wiirttemberg  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Eapp  was  a  vine-dresser  and 
farmer  of  plebeian  descent,  and  a  man  of  unusual  strength. 
of  character.  Born  in  1757,  he  began  to  speak  in  his  own 
house  when  about  thirty  years  of  age,  giving  to  his  congre- 
gation, which  gathered  from  miles  around,  the  results  of 
years  of  reading  and  careful  Bible  study.  Hahn  was  a 
man  of  literary  talent  as  well  as  an  orator  of  great  power. 
He  did  not  separate  from  the  established  church,  but  sought 
to  reform  it  from  within.  Eapp  refused  to  cooperate  with 
what  he  considered  a  corrupt  ecclesiastical  institution,  and 
though  he  counseled  strict  obedience  to  the  laws,  which  in- 
cluded payment  of  tithes  to  the  church,  neither  he  nor 
his  followers  attended  regular  services.  Hahn  and  Eapp,. 
therefore,  no  longer  worked  together,  and  Eapp,  with  the 
following  of  three  hundred  families  which  his  preaching 
had  attracted,  was  compelled  to  endure  religious  persecu- 
tion of  no  gentle  type. 

At  this  time,  as  well  as  in  later  years,  George  Eapp 
taught  certain  doctrines  which  were  peculiarly  his  own. 
Since  the  Eappites  acknowledged  no  written  creed,  we  must 
accept  his  views  as  theirs.  Eapp  evolved  a  curious  doctrine 
concerning  what  he  called  "the  dual  nature  of  Adam.^'" 
He  taught  that  Adam  contained  within  his  own  person  both 
the  sexual  elements,  reading  literally,  in  confirmation  of 
this.  Genesis  i:  26-27:  "  And  God  said,  let  us  make  man  in 
our  own  image,  after  our  own  likeness,  and  let  them  have 
dominion.  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him:  male  and  female  created  he 
them."     This  Eapp  held  to  mean  that  both  the  creator  and 

9 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

the  created  had  this  dual  nature,  and  had  Adam  been 
allowed  to  remain  in  his  original  state,  he  would  have 
begotten  offspring  without  the  aid  of  a  female.  But  Adam 
became  discontented,  and  God  separated  from  his  body  the 
female  part.  This  is  the  Eappite  interpretation  of  the  fall 
of  man.  From  this  Eapp  concluded  that  the  celibate  state 
is  more  pleasing  to  God,  and  that  in  the  "  renewed  "  world 
man  would  be  restored  to  the  Adamic  condition.  After  a 
period  of  religious  excitement  subsequent  to  the  removal 
of  the  Eappites  to  America,  marriage  was  renounced,  and 
celibacy  became  a  rule  of  community  life.  There  is  evi- 
dence that  prior  to  this  time  Eapp  had  himself  performed 
marriage  ceremonies.  Passages  of  Scripture  quoted  in  sup- 
port of  celibacy  were  Matthew  xxii :  30 :  "  For  in  the  res- 
urrection they  neither  marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage, 
,but  are  as  the  Angels  of  God  in  heaven."  Matthew  xix: 
i  10-12,  22-30;  I  Corinthians  vii:  7-8,  25-27  and  29;  I  Thes- 
^salonians  iv:  3-5;  Eevelation  xiv:  4.  Eapp  taught  that  the 
coming  of  Christ  and  the  "  renovation  "  of  the  world  were 
near  at  hand.  Father  Eapp  and  many  of  his  followers 
firmly  believed  that  he  would  live  to  see  the  reappearance  of 
Christ  in  the  heavens,  and  that  he  would  be  permitted  to 
present  his  followers  to  the  Saviour.  It  is  related  that  when 
Father  Eapp  was  upon  his  death-bed,  at  the  age  of  ninety 
years,  his  last  words  were:  "If  I  did  not  know  that  the 
dear  Lord  meant  that  I  should  present  you  all  to  him,  I 
should  think  my  last  moments  come." 

Of  Jesus,  Eapp  taught  that  he  was,  like  Adam,  a  dual 
being,  and  that  he  enjoined  upon  his  followers  a  commu- 
nity of  goods.  In  support  of  this  position  Eapp  referred  to 
\Acts  iv:  32,  in  which  it  is  said  of  the  early  Christians: 
^'And  the  multitude  of  them  that  believed  were  of  one 
heart  and  of  one  soul:  neither  said  any  of  them  that  aught 
of  the  things  which  he  possessed  was  his  own;  but  they 
had  all  things  common."  Total  regeneration  Eapp  de- 
clared necessary  to  salvation.     The  sum  and  substance  of 

10 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   RAPPITES 

his  creed  of  conduct  was:  Love  to  God  above  all,  and  to 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  without  laying  much  stress  on 
form,  letter,  or  ceremony.  Though  Eapp  believed  in  the 
doctrine  of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  he  did  not 
believe  that  this  punishment  would  be  eternal.  "  In  some 
far  distant  geological  cycle  the  universe  of  matter,  which, 
like  the  universe  of  spirit,  has  been  distorted  and  diseased 
through  the  fall,  will  be  restored  to  its  former  beauty  and 
happiness,  and  sin  and  suffering  will  finally  be  banished." 

Before  leaving  Germany  Eapp  and  a  number  of  his  fol- 
lowers had  been  brought  before  the  king  for  the  teaching 
of  heretical  doctrines  and  refusal  to  attend  the  services 
of  the  established  church.  The  ruler,  who  happened  to  be 
a  liberal  man,  inquired  if  Eapp  and  his  associates  were 
accustomed  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  state.  The  accusers 
reluctantly  admitted  that  they  were.  "  Then  let  them 
believe  as  they  please,"  said  the  king,  and  dismissed  the 
prisoners.  Petty  persecution,  however,  did  not  cease  with 
this  display  of  royal  clemency.  "  If  we  could  only  find  a 
land  where  religious  toleration  is  enjoyed,"  declared  the 
Eappites,  ^^we  would  wish  to  be  there  even  if  we  might 
for  a  while  have  to  live  upon  roots." 

Thus,  in  1803  George  Eapp  and  several  associates,  in- 
cluding his  adopted  son,  Frederick  Eapp,  had  set  out  for 
the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  locating  a  colony  in 
the  New  World.  They  selected  and  bought  a  large  tract  of 
land  near  Zelienople,  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the  following 
autumn,  three  ships,  carrying  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
families  of  the  adherents  of  Eapp,  had  followed  him  to  the 
land  of  religious  liberty.  About  one-third  of  these  joined 
one  Haller  in  founding  a  settlement  in  Lycoming  County, 
but  six  hundred  members  remained  with  Eapp  and  settled 
upon  an  estate  of  five  thousand  acres  of  unimproved  land. 
They  set  to  work,  under  the  direction  of  Eapp,  with  such 
zeal  that  they  soon  made  comfortable  homes  for  the  entire 
population. 

11 


/ 


THE  NEW  HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

In  1805  the  "  community  of  equality  '^  was  established. 
The  agreement  to  which  the  members  bound  themselves 
specified: 

1.  All  cash,  land,  and  chattels  of  every  member  to  be 
a  free  gift  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  community,  and 
to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  superintendents  as  if  the  mem- 
bers had  never  possessed  them;  members  pledge  themselves 
to  submit  to  the  laws  of  the  community,  to  show  a  ready 
obedience  to  the  superintendents,  to  give  the  labor  of  their 
hands  for  the  good  of  the  community,  and  to  hold  their 
children  to  do  the  same. 

2.  George  Eapp  and  his  associates  to  give  to  each  mem- 
ber such  secular  and  religious  education  as  would  tend  to 
his  temporal  welfare  and  eternal  felicity,  to  supply  to  mem- 
bers all  the  necessaries  of  life,  to  support  them  and  their 
widows  and  children  alike  in  sickness,  health,  and  old  age. 

3.  In  case  of  withdrawal,  a  member's  money  to  be  re- 
funded to  him  without  interest;  if  he  had  come  in  with- 
out capital  such  a  sum  to  be  awarded  to  him  as  his  conduct 
as  a  member  would  justify.  (This  section  was  abrogated 
in  1808.) 

One  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  were  cleared  the 
first  year,  and  forty  to  fifty  log  houses  erected,  besides  a 
large  church,  mills,  and  shops.  The  next  year  four  hun- 
dred acres  were  cleared,  a  sawmill,  tannery,  storehouse  and 
distillery  erected,  and  a  vineyard  of  several  acres  planted. 
The  Eappites  had  six  hundred  bushels  of  surplus  grain, 
and  three  thousand  gallons  of  whisky,  none  of  which  they 
drank  themselves,  for  it  is  a  peculiar  fact  that  while  the 
Harmonists  were  long  famous  for  the  excellence  of  their 
distillery  output,  strict  temperance  was  always  a  rule  of 
their  organization.     Even  the  use  of  tobacco  was  forbidden. 

The  renunciation  of  the  married  state  by  the  Eappites 
dates  from  1807.  Persons  formerly  married,  of  whom 
there  was  a  large  number  in  the  community,  were  separated 
and  placed  in  different  establishments.     Ko  instance  is  re- 

12 


THE   RISE   OF   TEE   BAPPITES 

corded  of  marriage  among  the  original  Harmonists,  except- 
ing in  a  few  cases  where  young  people  eloped  and  deserted 
the  community.  The  acquiescence  of  the  society  in  this 
rule  reveals  the  supreme  authority  of  George  Kapp,  who 
was  revered  as  a  prophet  and  a  saint. 

The  remarkable  prosperity  of  the^  community  may  be 
judged  from  a  report  of  the  products  in  1809,  four  years 
after  the  removal  to  America.  In  that  year  they  raised 
eix  thousand  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  four  thousand  bushels 
of  wheat,  the  same  of  rye,  five  thousand  bushels  of  oats, 
ten  thousand  bushels  of  potatoes,  and  four  thousand 
pounds  of  flax  and  hemp,  besides  other  less  important 
products.  During  this  year  they  made  their  first  woolen 
cloth  spun  by  hand  from  yam.  In  the  following  year  the 
woolen  factory  was  erected.  The  community  now  included 
about  one  hundred  and  forty  families  comprising  seven  or 
eight  hundred  persons.  Two  thousand  acres  of  land  were 
under  cultivation,  and  there  was  a  large  surplus  for  sale.  A 
visitor  to  the  settlement  at  this  time  said:  "  We  are  struck 
with  surprise  and  admiration  at  the  astonishing  progress 
in  improvements  and  the  establishment  of  manufactories 
which  this  little  republic  has  made  in  five  years.  They 
have  done  more  substantial  good  in  the  short  period  of  five 
years  than  the  same  number  of  families,  scattered  about  the 
country,  have  done  in  fifty.  This  arises  from  their  unity 
and  fraternal  love,  added  to  their  uniform  and  persever- 
ing industry.  They  know  no  self-interest  except  that ' 
which  adds  to  the  interest  and  happiness  of  the  whole 
community.^' 

The  Rappites  soon  realized  the  disadvantages  of  a  situ- 
ation twelve  miles  distant  from  navigation,  and  discovered 
the  inadaptability  of  their  land  to  fruit  cultivation,  in 
which  they  desired  to  engage  extensively.  It  is  also  said 
that  they  desired  a  warmer  climate.  In  1813  Frederick 
Eapp  was  delegated  to  go  farther  West  in  search  of  a  new 
home.     Eapp  traveled  all  over  the  territory  bordering  on 

13 


THE   NEW   HARMONY^  MOVEMENT 

the  Ohio,  and  finally  chose  a  beautiful  tract  of  land  on  the 
Wabash  River,  a  few  miles  above  its  mouth.  In  addition 
to  twenty  thousand  acres  of  government  land,  he  purchased 
several  adjacent  improved  farms,  a  total  of  nearly  thirty 
thousand  acres. 

The  Harmonists  sold  their  property  in  Pennsylvania, 
with  all  improvements,  at  a  great  sacrifice,  for  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  and  early  in  1815  went  down  in  boats 
and  founded  the  village  of  "  Harmonic,"  where  a  large 
advance  party  had  begun  the  requisite  clearing  in  the  pre- 
ceding June. 


I 


U 


CHAPTER   III 

THE    KAPPITES    IN"    INDIAN'A 

"  When  Rapp  the  Harmonist  embargoed  marriage 
In  his  harmonious  settlement  which  flourishes 


? 


*     * 


Strangely  enough  as  yet  without  miscarriage 
Why  call'd  he  '  Harmony '  a  state  sans  wedlock  ? 
Now  here  I've  got  the  preacher  at  a  dead  lock. 

"Because  he  either  meant  to  sneer  at  harmony 
Or  marriage,  by  divorcing  them  thus  oddly ; 
But  whether  reverend  Rapp  learn'd  this  in  Germany 

Or  not,  'tis  said  his  sect  is  rich  and  godly, 
Pious  and  pure,  beyond  what  I  can  term  any 
Of  ours.     *    *     *» 

— Btron,  Don  Juan,  Canto  xv. 

All  that  we  know  of  the  history  of  the  Rappite  com- 
munity on  the  "Wabash  is  gleaned  from  the  accounts  of 
travelers  who  visited  the  settlement,  which  immediately 
attracted  wide  attention  in  the  West,  and  became  the  larg- 
est town  in  the  territory  of  Indiana.  The  last  of  the  thou- 
sand persons  who  were  members  of  the  original  community 
died  some  years  ago,  and  the  Harmonists  kept  no  record  of 
their  proceedings. 

The  Eappites  found  themselves  pleasantly  situated  on 
the  Wabash.  The  broad  river  which  flowed  before  the- 
town  furnished  power  for  a  large  grist-mill  which  they 
erected  some  miles  below.  Almost  opposite  the  settlement 
lay  an  island  of  three  thousand  acres,  affording  excellent 
pasturage  for  their  flocks.  The  great  estate  which  they 
were  to  till  was  more  fertile  than  the  farms  they  had  de- 
serted, and  the  undulating  hills  which  enclosed  the  river- 
bottom  furnished  ample  territory  for  vineyards.     Favor- 

15 


THE   NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

ably  to  Eapp's  ideas,  they  were  farther  removed  from  ener- 
Tating  contact  with  the  outside  world,  and  the  simple  peas- 
ants were  here  less  liable  to  become  dissatisfied  with  their 
mode  of  life  by  the  contemplation  of  that  of  others.  There 
was  little  in  the  hard  lot  of  the  pioneers  who  inhabited  the 
surrounding  country  to  tempt  the  Eappites  from  their  com- 
fortable homes,  and  though  the  squatters  regarded  with 
contempt  the  servile  allegiance  of  the  Harmonists  to 
Father  Rapp,  they  must  have  envied  them  the  oasis  which 
-they  soon  created  in  the  wilds  of  Indiana  at  a  time  when 
the  total  population  of  the  State  was  but  a  few  thousand, 
and  the  life  of  its  settlers  was  one  of  constant  hardship 
and  danger. 

The  Eappites  soon  discovered,  however,  that  their  new 
home  was  not  a  serpentless  Eden.  The  first  breaking  up 
of  the  bottom  ground  released  the  germs  of  malaria,  and 
the  death-rate  was  enormous  during  the  first  five  years  of 
the  settlement.  While  the  ratio  decreased  in  later  years, 
it  is  claimed  by  some  authorities  that  the  Eappites  held  to 
a  resolution  made  during  the  first  year  of  their  residence 
in  Indiana  to  remain  only  long  enough  to  improve  the  land 
sufficiently  to  make  it  salable.  In  the  last  year  of  their 
residence  on  the  Wabash,  it  was  officially  stated  that  but 
two  members  of  the  community  died — a  surprisingly  low 
death-rate,  showing  the  establishment  of  healthful  con- 
ditions. 

It  was  not  long  until  Harmonie  began  to  show  evidences 
of  German  thrift.  Numerous  log,  frame,  and  brick  build- 
ings were  erected,  orchards  and  vineyards  were  planted. 
Among  the  first  buildings  constructed  was  a  large  frame 
church,  having  a  belfry  with  a  clock  striking  the  hours 
and  quarters.  This  was  replaced  as  a  place  of  worship 
in  1822  by  a  huge  brick  structure.  One  entire  block  was 
given  to  manufacturing  purposes,  and  among  the  buildings 
were  a  cocoonery  and  silk-factory,  a  sawmill,  brick-yard, 
brewery,  distillery,  woolen  mill,  and  an  oil-miU.    The  power 

16 


Of  m 


THE   RAPPITES   IN  INDIANA 

in  several  of  the  smaller  manufacturing  establishments  was 
derived  from  a  treadmill  propelled  by  dogs.  The  brick 
dwelling-houses  erected  by  the  Eappites  still  stand  as  monu- 
ments to  the  faithful  work  of  their  sturdy  builders.  The 
frames  were  made  of  very  heavy  timbers,  and  the  spaces 
between  the  weather-boarding  and  the  plastering  were 
filled  with  cement  and  brick.  Four  large  buildings  were 
erected  to  serve  as  community  houses.  What  was  known 
as  "  Number  1 "  has  been  torn  down;  "  Number  2  "  is  now 
a  general  store;  on  its  south  wall  is  an  old-fashioned  sun- 
dial which  has  been  faithfully  telling  the  time  since  com- 
munity days.  "  Number  3/'  partially  rebuilt,  is  used  as  a 
hotel,  "  The  Tavern."  "  Number  4  "  has  been  converted 
into  an  opera-house.  A  large  brick  house  was  built  as  a 
residence  for  Father  Eapp.  Near  it  was  a  brick  and  stone 
structure  used  as  a  granary,  and  intended  also  for  a  fort 
or  refuge  for  the  population  in  case  of  invasion  by  the 
squatters,  of  whom  the  Eappites  stood  in  much  dread. 
This  structure  was  provided  with  loopholes,  and  was  so 
substantially  built  that  its  defense  would  have  been  easy. 
It  was  never  used  for  other  than  peaceful  purposes,  it 
became  in  later  years  a  museum  and  a  woolen  mill;  now 
rapidly  falling  into  decay,  it  is  one  of  the  picturesque  fea- 
tures of  New  Harmony. 

George  Flower,  one  of  the  founders  of  an  English  set- 
tlement in  Edwards  County,  Illinois,  describes  the  village 
as  he  saw  it  in  1819.  A  large  portion  of  the  land  included 
in  the  estate,  he  says,  was  of  the  best  quality,  between 
two  and  three  thousand  acres  being  under  cultivation  and 
fenced.  The  town  consisted  of  several  brick  and  frame 
two-story  houses  for  the  use  of  small  families,  all  built 
after  one  model,  with  ample  gardens,  well  fenced  and 
neatly  cultivated,  and  a  vast  number  of  log  cabins,  neatly 
kept.  There  were  also  five  or  six  very  large  buildings, 
three  stories  high,  which  contained  the  community  fam- 
ilies, of  sixty  to  eighty  individuals  each.     Eapp  had  a  brick 

3  17 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

mansion,  a  large  building,  with  a  granary  of  the  most  solid 
masonry,  and  a  large  brick  church,  itself  a  curiosity,  the 
plan,  it  is  said,  having  been  given  to  Mr.  Eapp  in  a  dream. 
There  were  four  entrances  to  the  church,  closed  by  folding 
doors;  the  doors  were  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
from  each  other.  The  upper  story  was  supported  by 
twenty-eight  pillars  of  walnut,  cherry,  and  sassafras,  the 
walnut  pillars  being  six  feet  in  circumference,  and  twenty- 
five  feet  high;  the  others  were  twenty-one  feet  high  and  of 
proportionate  circumference;  a  surprisingly  large  building, 
Mr.  Flower  declared,  for  this  country.  William  Herbert, 
a  London  traveler,  writes  of  this  church:  "  I  can  scarcely 
imagine  myself  to  be  in  the  wilds  of  Indiana,  on  the  bor- 
ders of  the  Wabash,  while  passing  through  the  long  and 
resounding  aisles  and  surveying  the  stately  colonnades  of 
this  church.^'  ;There  were  shops  for  every  occupation,  Mr. 
Flower  tells  us,  represented  in  the  community,  magnificent 
orchards  of  grafted  fruit  in  full  bearing,  and  extensive 
vineyards. 

"  This  singular  community  of  Germans,"  Mr.  Flower 
writes,  "  had  little  or  no  communication  with  the  outside 
world,  except  through  the  miller,  the  storekeeper,  the 
tavern-keeper,  and  Mr.  Eapp.  All  who  went  to  Harmony, 
with  surprise  observed  with  what  facility  the  necessaries  of 
life  were  acquired  and  enjoyed  by  every  member  of  Eapp's 
community.  When  compared  with  the  privations  and  dis- 
comforts to  which  individual  settlers  were  exposed  in  their 
backwoods  experience,  the  contrast  is  very  striking.  The 
poor  hunter  that  brought  a  bushel  of  corn  to  be  ground, 
perhaps  from  a  distance  of  ten  miles,  saw  with  wonder  peo- 
ple as  poor  as  himself  inhabiting  good  houses,  surrounded 
by  pleasant  gardens,  completely  clothed  with  garments  of 
the  best  quality,  supplied  regularly  with  meal,  meat,  and 
fuel,  without  any  apparent  individual  exertion,  and  he 
could  not  fail  to  contrast  the  comforts  and  conveniences 
surrounding  the  dwellings  of  the  Harmonists  with  the  dirt 

18 


THE   RAPPITES   IN   INDIANA 

and  discomfort  of  his  own  log  hnt,  and  it  opened  to  Ms 
mind  a  new  train  of  thought.  One  of  them  said  to  me  in 
his  own  simple  language:  'I  studies  and  I  studies  it/  an 
expression  that  depicts  the  feeling  of  every  person  that 
obtained  a  sight  of  Eapp's  colony  at  Harmony." 

At  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  community  in  Penn- 
sylvania, a  record  was  made  of  the  amount  of  property 
contributed  by  each  member,  and  it  was  agreed  that  at 
the  withdrawal  of  any  member,  this  amount,  or  its  equiv- 
alent, should  be  returned  to  him.  In  1808,  as  before 
stated,  this  agreement  was  abrogated,  and  in  1818,  after 
the  removal  of  the  Harmonists  to  Indiana,  the  record  was 
destroyed,  on  motion  of  George  Eapp,  unanimously  adopted 
by  the  society.  With  its  consignment  to  the  flames,  the 
last  tie  which  bound  the  Eappites  to  the  system  of  individ- 
ual property  was  dissolved. 

We  are  not  at  a  loss  to  explain  the  wonderful  authority 
acquired  by  George  Eapp  as  leader  of  the  Harmonists. 
Nearly  six  feet  in  height,  with  patriarchal  beard  and  stately 
walk,  he  commanded  the  reverence  of  the  members  of  his 
sect  as  a  prophet  among  them,  while  his  cheerful  and  kindly 
manner,  his  sympathetic  and  plain-spoken  way  of  talking 
over  with  the  Harmonists  their  smallest  trials,  made  him 
beloved  as  well.  Father  Eapp  shrewdly  maintained  a  nom- 
inal cabinet,  or  board  of  advisers,  chosen  from  among  the 
more  intelligent  members  of  the  community,  such  as  might 
be  able  to  set  up  a  rival  leadership.  He  gained  great  pres- 
tige by  playing  on  the  superstitions  of  the  peasantry.  He 
professed  to  be  guided  on  many  occasions  by  communica- 
tions received  in  visions,  as  noted  by  Flower,  for  instance, 
in  building  a  great  structure  in  the  form  of  a  Greek  cross 
on  plans  supposed  to  have  been  handed  down  from  heaven. 
Among  other  traditions  of  Eappite  days  still  lingering  in 
New  Harmony  is  one  concerning  the  existence  of  an  under- 
ground passage  connecting  Father  Eapp's  cellar  and  the 
granary  or  fort.     Through  this  passage,  the  story  goes, 

19 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

Father  Eapp  was  accustomed  to  appear  as  from  the  ground, 
mystifying  the  simple  workmen,  and  perhaps  leading  them 
to  believe  that  their  labors  were  constantly  within  the  range 
of  his  observation.  It  is  also  said  that  Father  Eapp  en- 
tered his  pulpit  through  a  tunnel  leading  to  the  church 
porch  from  his  house  just  across  the  road. 

There  still  remains  in  New  Harmony  what  is  known 
as  '^  Gabriel's  Eock  " — two  limestone  slabs,  originally  one 
stone,  ten  feet  by  five,  and  five  inches  thick.     Upon  one 
a  square  figure  is  traced,  occupying  the  center,  and  upon 
the  other  appears,  seemingly,  the  imprint  of  two  feet — the 
print  of  the  right  foot  being  perfect,  while  the  forepart  of 
the  left  foot  has  disappeared.     The  tradition  is  that  Father 
Eapp  informed  his  followers  that  these  were  imprints  of 
the  feet  of  the  Angel  Gabriel,  who  had  alighted  upon  earth 
to  convey  to  the  society  a  message  from  heaven.     David 
Dale  Owen  concluded  that  the  figures  were  chipped  in  the 
stone  by  Indians.     Another  theory  is  that  the  slab  was 
hewn  from  the  pictured  rocks  along  the  Mississippi,  which 
was  traversed  by  the  Harmonist  flatboats  in  the  extension 
of  their  trade.     H.  E.  Schoolcraft,  the  famous  traveler  and 
ethnologist,  who  visited  Harmony  in  1821,  gives  a  labored 
description  of  the  rock.     "The  impressions,"  he  writes, 
"  are  to  all  appearances  those  of  a  man  standing  upright, 
the  left  foot  a  little  forward,  the  heels  turned  inward. 
The  distance  between  the  heels  by  an  exact  measurement 
was  six  and  a  quarter  inches;  three  and  a  half  inches 
between  the  extremities  of  the  great  toes.    By  an  accurate 
examination  it  will,  however,  be  ascertained  that  they  are 
not  the  impressions  of  feet  accustomed  to  the  use  of  Euro- 
pean shoes,  for  the  toes  are  pressed  out  and  the  foot  is 
flat,  as  is  observed  in  persons  who  walk  barefoot.     .     .     . 
The  probability  is  that  they  were  caused  by  the  impression 
of  an  individual  belonging  to  a  race  of  men  ignorant  of  the 
art  of  tanning  hides,  and  that  this  took  place  in  a  much 
earlier  age  than  the  traditions  of  the  present  Indians. 

20 


THE   RAPPITES   IN   INDIANA 

This  supposition  is  strengthened  by  the  extraordinary  size 
of  the  feet.  In  another  sense  the  imprints  are  strikingly 
natural,  since  the  muscles  are  represented  with  the  mi- 
nutest exactness  and  truth.  This  weakens  the  hypothesis 
that  they  are  examples  of  the  sculpture  of  men  living  in 
the  remotest  ages  of  this  continent.  Neither  history  nor 
tradition  gives  us  the  slightest  information  of  such  a  peo- 
ple, for  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  we  have  no  proof  that 
the  people  who  erected  our  remarkable  western  tumuli  ever 
had  a  knowledge  even  of  masonry,  much  less  sculpture,  or 
that  they  had  invented  the  chisel,  the  knife,  or  the  ax,  other 
than  those  made  from  porphyry,  hornstone,  or  obsidian. 
The  medium  length  of  the  human  male  foot  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  ten  inches.  The  length  of  the  footprint  described 
amounts  to  ten  and  a  fourth  inches,  the  breadth  measured 
over  the  toes  in  a  right  angle  with  the  first  line  is  four 
inches,  but  the  greatest  spread  of  the  base  is  four  and  a 
half  inches,  which  decreases  at  the  heels  to  two  and  a  half 
inches.  Directly  before  these  impressions  is  a  mark  similar 
to  a  scroll,  of  which  the  greatest  length  is  two  feet,  seven 
inches,  and  the  greatest  breadth  twelve  and  a  half  inches. 
The  rock  bearing  these  interesting  impressions  is  of  com- 
pact limestone,  bluish  gray  in  color."  The  Duke  of  Saxe- 
Weimar,  who  visited  New  Harmony  only  two  years  after 
the  departure  of  the  Harmonists,  says:  '^  This  piece  of 
stone  was  hewed  out  of  the  rock  near  St.  Louis  and  sold  to 
Mr.  Eapp."  This  theory,  therefore,  seems  to  have  the 
weight  of  authority. 

Father  Eapp  taught  humility,  simplicity,  self-sacrifice,, 
neighborly  love,  regular  and  persevering  industry,  prayer, 
and  self-examination.  He  also  demanded  that  each  eve- 
ning any  one  who  had  sinned  during  the  day  should  come 
to  him  and  confess  his  transgression.  !No  quarrels  were 
allowed  to  pass  through  the  night  uncompromised,  the  rule 
which  declares,  "  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  thy  wrath,'' 
being  literally  enforced.     Persons  seeking  admission  to  the 

21 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

community  were  compelled  to  make  full  confession  of  their 
sins,  this  being  considered  requisite  to  the  forgiveness  of 
God. 

Two  periods  of  religious  service  were  observed — one  on 
Sunday,  when  two  services  and  a  Sunday-school  were  con- 
ducted, one  on  Thursday,  when  general  services  were  held. 
In  the  church  were  two  bells,  one  of  which  called  the  peo- 
ple to  and  from  their  daily  labors,  and  another,  said  to 
have  been  the  largest  imported  up  to  that  time,  marked 
the  opening  of  religious  services.  Father  Eapp  presided 
and  preached  at  all  the  religious  gatherings  of  the  com- 
munity. For  the  purpose  of  making  religious  instruction 
more  personal,  the  community  was  divided  into  classes  ac- 
cording to  sex  and  age.  Four  holidays  were  observed, 
Christmas,  Easter  Sunday,  Pentecost,  and  Good  Friday, 
besides  three  feast-days,  February  15th,  the  anniversary  of 
the  founding  of  the  society.  Harvest  Home,  and  an  annual 
'^^  Lord's  Supper  "  in  the  autumn. 

The  day's  work  was  conducted  after  a  fixed  routine. 
Between  five  and  six  the  people  rose,  breakfasted  between 
six  and  seven,  lunched  at  nine,  dined  at  twelve,  ate  an 
afternoon  lunch  (Yesperbrod)  at  three,  and  supped  between 
six  and  seven.  At  nine  o'clock  the  curfew-bell  was  rung. 
Women  as  well  as  men  labored  in  the  fields,  as  many  as 
fifty  sometimes  being  employed  in  a  body,  harvesting 
wheat  or  breaking  flax  in  the  streets.  Often  they  marched 
to  the  fields  to  the  music  of  a  band  which  was  one  of  the 
regular  institutions  of  the  community.  On  summer  eve- 
nings this  band,  stationed  in  the  public  garden,  discoursed 
the  old  German  hymns  while  the  women  busied  themselves 
with  their  housework,  the  stolid  peasants  dozed  upon  the 
door-steps,  and  the  children  shouted  at  play  in  the  streets. 
It  is  said  that  this  band  often  played  upon  the  hillsides 
while  the  peasants  labored  in  the  valley.  A  hundred  acres 
of  wheat  were  harvested  by  the  sickle  in  a  day — a  remark- 
able result  for  that  time. 

/CrJ 


THE   RAPPITES   IN   INDIANA 

John  Woods,  a  member  of  the  settlement  at  English 
Prairie,  twenty  miles  from  "  Harmonic  "  on  the  Illinois 
side  of  the  Wabash,  visited  the  Eappites  in  1820.  He  says 
that  the  value  of  their  property  was  then  estimated  at  a 
million  dollars.  "Each  lives  in  his  own  house,"  writes 
Woods,  ^'  but  all  dine  at  one  hour  and  take  their  meals  in 
the  same  manner."  Woods  says  that  the  houses  were  dis- 
tributed among  the  Harmonists  by  lot,  but  "  though  there 
was  of  necessity  much  difference  in  the  size  and  equipment 
of  the  various  buildings,  there  was  no  dissatisfaction  or 
disturbance  over  the  apportionment."  He  declared  them 
to  be  a  most  industrious  people,  but  said  the  greater  part 
of  them  were  not  very  enlightened.  "  As  I  approached  the 
place  in  July,  I  met  their  plow-teams,  sixteen  in  number, 
just  entering  a  field  of  wheat-stubble.  I  was  much  pleased 
with  their  appearance."  Woods  counted  eighty-seven 
milch  cows  going  to  pasture,  driven  by  a  herdsman  who, 
according  to  another  authority,  lived  in  a  house  on  wheels, 
called  "  Noah's  Ark."  "  The  dress  of  the  Harmonists," 
writes  Woods,  "  is  uncommonly  plain,  mostly  of  their  own 
manufacturing.  The  men  wear  jackets  and  pantaloons, 
with  a  coarse  hat;  the  women  a  kind  of  jacket  and  petti- 
coat, with  a  skullcap  and  straw  hat  made  in  the  factory 
here.  As  this  society  do  not  marry,  I  presume  they  de- 
pend upon  immigration  from  Germany  to  keep  up  their 
numbers,  as  the  Americans  are  not  likely  to  join  them; 
most  of  them  regard  the  Harmonists  with  jealousy  on 
account  of  their  engrossing  most  of  the  business  of  this 
part  of  the  country."  Woods's  surmise  as  to  the  method 
employed  in  keeping  up  the  numbers  was  correct.  In  1817 
one  hundred  and  fifty  recruits  from  Wurtemberg  swelled 
the  membership. 

Morris  Birkbeck,  an  associate  of  the  Flowers  in  the 
Edwards  County  settlement,  visited  Harmony  frequently, 
and  in  his  diary  of  August  3,  1817,  gives  the  following 
account  of  a  short  stay  there:  "  When  I  arrived  on  Sunday 

23 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

evening,  all  were  at  services.  I  found  even  the  tavern 
deserted,  and  was  compelled  to  call  the  keeper  from  the 
church  in  order  to  secure  accommodations.  Soon  the  en- 
tire body  of  people,  which  is  about  seven  hundred,  poured 
out  of  the  church,  and  exhibited  so  much  health,  peace, 
and  neatness  that  we  could  but  exclaim:  *  Surely,  the  insti- 
tutions which  produce  so  much  happiness  must  have  more 
of  good  than  of  evil  in  them,^  and  here  I  rest,  not  lowered 
in  my  abhorrence  of  the  hypocrisy,  if  it  be  such,  which 
governs  the  ignorant  by  nursing  them  in  superstition,  but 
inclined  in  charity  to  believe  that  the  leaders  are  sincere. 

"  The  colony  is  thrifty  and  useful  to  the  community. 
The  Harmonists  set  a  good  example  in  neatness  and  in- 
dustry. Though  the  population  is  ignorant,  it  is  advanced 
in  the  social  scale  perhaps  a  hundred  years  beyond  their 
solitary  neighbors. 

"  I  am  quite  convinced  that  the  association  of  numbers 
in  the  application  of  a  good  capital  is  sufficient  to  account 
for  all  that  has  been  done,  and  the  unnatural  restraint 
which  forms  so  prominent  and  revolting  a  feature  of  their 
institutions  is  prospective,  rather  than  immediate,  in  its 
object. 

"  Strangers  visit  their  establishment,  and  retire  from  it 
full  of  admiration,  but  a  slavish  acquiescence,  under  a  dis- 
gusting superstition,  is  so  remarkable  an  ingredient  in  their 
character  that  it  checks  all  desire  of  imitation." 

Connected  with  George  Eapp  in  the  leadership  of  the 
Harmonists  was  Frederick  Eapp,  who  for  many  years  served 
as  manager  of  the  business  interests  of  the  Rappites. 
Frederick  Eapp  was  the  adopted  son  of  George  Eapp,  and 
a  man  of  intelligence  and  education.  He  met  a  violent 
death  in  1834,  some  allege  at  the  instigation  of  George 
Eapp,  incensed  at  his  son's  refusal  to  put  away  his  wife. 
A  more  probable  story  is  that  he  was  fatally  injured  by  a 
falling  tree  at  Economy,  Pennsylvania.  Frederick  Eapp 
contributed  to  the  community  most  of  its  attractive  fea- 

24 


THE   RAPPITES   IN   INDIANA 

tures.  By  nature  an  artist,  he  was  the  originator  of  plans 
which  made  Harmony  one  of  the  most  attractive  villages  in 
America.  Had  it  not  been  for  his  influence  upon  George 
Eapp,  amusements  would  have  been  few  in  the  place,  and 
the  unrelieved  monotony  of  the  community  might  have  im- 
pelled even  the  stolid  Rappites  to  renounce  their  allegiance 
and  seek  happier  homes. 

While  Father  Rapp  was  king  of  the  community  Fred- 
erick Rapp  was  his  secretary  of  state.  Father  Rapp  con- 
trolled internal,  Frederick  Rapp  external  affairs.  Through 
Frederick  Rapp  the  community  held  business  and  political 
connection  with  the  outside  world.  Frederick  Rapp  was 
a  member  of  the  convention  which  met  under  the  famous 
elm  at  Corydon  and  framed  the  first  constitution  of  In- 
diana, preliminary  to  the  admission  of  the  Territory  to  the 
Union.  He  was  afterward  a  member  of  the  State  legis- 
lature. Among  the  important  committees  upon  which  he 
served  was  that  which  located  the  State  capital  at  Indian- 
apolis in  1820. 

Under  the  younger  Eapp's  administration,  Harmony 
became  a  garden  of  neatness  and  beauty  in  the  wilderness. 
The  gabled  roofs  of  the  buildings  were  lifted  above  the 
forest  of  black  locust-trees  which  the  Rappites  seemed  to 
love  so  well.  The  broad  river,  the  vine-covered  hills,  the 
fertile  valley  with  its  peaceful  town,  the  stately  church  and 
the  fruitful  orchards,  furnished  a  scene  of  Arcadian  beauty 
which  seemed  a  vision  of  promise  to  the  Owenite  commu- 
nists who  succeeded  to  the  ownership  of  the  estate.  In  the 
language  of  Mr.  John  Holliday:  "  It  would  seem  to  the 
traveled  visitor  like  some  quaint  German  village,  trans- 
ported from  the  Neckar  or  the  Rhine,  and  set  down  in  this 
western  waste  like  an  Aladdin^s  palace/'  There  were  tables 
and  benches  in  the  orchards,  and  on  each  machine  in  the 
factories  stood  a  vessel  filled  with  flowers. 

A  work  of  art  credited  to  Frederick  Rapp  still  to  be 
seen  in  New  Harmony  is  the  figure  of  a  rose  and  the 

25 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

accompanying  inscription  carved  upon  stone  to  decorate 
the  doorway  of  the  Eappite  church.  The  reference,  Micah 
iv:  8,  reads,  in  the  Lutheran  edition:  "  Unto  thee  shall  come 
the  golden  rose,  the  first  dominion." 

A  short  distance  from  the  village  was  a  famous  horticul- 
tural design  which  visitors  came  miles  to  see.  It  remained 
as  an  object  of  curiosity  during  the  years  of  the  Owen 
settlement,  but  the  only  present  reminder  of  its  existence 
is  a  pleasant  grove  of  locust-trees  which  marks  the  spot 
where  it  stood.  A  labyrinth  of  vines  and  shrubs  was  con- 
structed about  a  summer-house,  rough  on  the  exterior,  but 
beautifully  furnished  within.  Eobert  Owen  was  told,  on 
his  first  visit  there,  that  this  was  the  emblematic  repre- 
sentation of  the  life  the  colonists  had  chosen.  Eobert  Dale 
Owen  says:  "  It  contained  many  circuitous  walks,  enclosed 
by  high  hedges  and  bordered  with  flowering  shrubbery. 
It  was  arranged  with  such  intricacy  that  without  some 
Daedalus  to  furnish  a  clew,  one  might  walk  for  hours  and 
fail  to  reach  a  building  erected  in  the  center.  This  was  a 
temple  of  rough  material,  but  covered  with  vines  of  grape 
and  convolvulus,  and  its  interior  neatly  fitted  up  and  pret- 
tily furnished.  Thus  George  Eapp  had  sought  to  shadow 
iorth  to  his  followers  their  final  state  of  peace  and  har- 
mony; and  the  rough  exterior  of  the  shrine,  and  the  ele- 
gance displayed  within,  were  to  serve  as  types  of  toil  and 
suffering  succeeded  by  happy  repose.'^ 

The  Eappites  carried  out  strictly  in  every-day  life  the 
moral  laws  and  religious  observances  prescribed  by  Father 
Happ.  Any  transgression  of  these  regulations  was  pun- 
ished, not  by  Father  Eapp,  but  by  a  refusal  of  the  remain- 
ing members  of  the  society  to  associate  with  the  wrong- 
doer until  full  forgiveness  had  been  obtained.  There  is 
no  account  of  a  single  infraction  of  the  law  of  celibacy. 
In  later  years,  elopements  were  not  unknown,  but  the  care 
ivith  which  the  sexes  were  separated  prevented  a  frequent 
repetition  of  the  offense,  and  such  transgressors  were  not 

26 


THE   RAPPITES   IN   INDIANA 

again  admitted  to  the  society,  except  after  the  performance 
of  prolonged  penance.  The  character  of  Father  Eapp  has 
never  been  questioned,  and  his  example  went  far  toward 
insuring  good  conduct  on  the  part  of  his  followers.  The 
reputation  for  honesty  borne  by  the  Rappites  was  one  of 
the  secrets  of  their  commercial  prosperity.  Flour,  woolen 
goods,  or  distillery  products  bearing  the  Harmony  brand 
were  known  to  be  of  the  best  quality,  and  this  fact  secured 
them  trade  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Robert  Owen 
said  of  them:  "It  is  due  to  the  society  who  formed  this 
settlement  to  state  that  I  have  not  yet  met  with  more 
kind-hearted,  temperate,  and  industrious  citizens,  nor 
found  men  more  sincere,  upright,  and  honest  in  all  deal- 
ings, than  the  Harmonists." 

The  jealousy  of  neighbors  and  the  natural  hatred  of  the 
squatters  for  this  simple  sect  led  in  the  early  years  of  the 
settlement  to  the  circulation  of  reports  injurious  to  their 
credit.  It  is  related  that  when  on  one  occasion  Frederick 
Eapp  made  his  regular  trip  to  Pittsburg  for  supplies,  he 
found  himself  denied  credit  by  merchants  of  that  city. 
In  deep  discouragement  and  humiliation,  he  went  to  the 
riverside  to  weep  and  pray.  He  was  found  there  by  a 
merchant,  who  was  so  touched  by  Rapp's  dependence  on 
prayer  to  release  him  from  his  troubles,  that  he  offered 
him  all  the  supplies  he  could  transport  in  two  four-horse 
wagons.  The  offer  was  accepted  with  thanksgiving,  and 
in  a  short  time  the  merchant  was  paid  in  full.  Several 
years  later  this  man  was  on  the  verge  of  financial  embarrass- 
ment during  a  period  of  business  depression.  When  the 
news  reached  the  Harmonists,  Frederick  Rapp  filled  his 
saddle-bags  with  coin,  and  hastening  to  Pittsburg,  saved 
their  benefactor  from  bankruptcy. 

The  financial  management  of  the  society  was  always 
most  careful.  Mr.  Arthur  Dransfield,  librarian  of  the 
working  men's  institute  at  New  Harmony,  has  in  his  pos- 
session a  letter  from  Frederick  Rapp,  concluding  a  trans- 

27 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

action  with  William  Maclure  involving  over  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  in  which  Rapp  gives  minute  directions 
for  the  disposition  of  a  balance  of  sixty-five  cents  due  the 
society. 

The  moundless  surface  of  the  Rappite  cemetery  at  New 
Harmony,  which  occupies  the  site  of  an  old  Indian  bury- 
ing-ground,  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  community 
was  one  of  perfect  equality.  Old  and  young,  high  and 
low  alike  were  at  death  laid  to  rest  under  the  trees,  with 
only  the  elders  as  witnesses.  Before  morning  the  place  of 
burial  had  been  sodded  over,  with  nothing  left  to  distin- 
guish the  spot,  although  a  plan  indicating  the  site  of  each 
grave  was  retained. 

Robert  Dale  Owen,  in  Threading  My  Way,  gives  us 
the  last  information  we  have  of  the  Rappites  in  their  In- 
diana home,  describing  them  just  as  his  father  found  them 
before  their  departure  from  the  Wabash  valley: 

"  Harmony  was  a  marvelous  experiment  from  a  pecu- 
niary point  of  view,  for  at  the  time  of  their  emigration 
from  Germany,  their  property  did  not  exceed  twenty-five 
dollars  a  head,  while  in  twenty-one  years  (i.  e.,  in  1825),  a 
fair  estimate  gave  them  two  thousand  dollars  for  each  man, 
woman,  and  child,  probably  ten  times  the  average  wealth 
throughout  the  United  States;  for  at  that  time  each  per- 
son in  Indiana  averaged  but  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars^ 
worth  of  property,  and  even  in  Massachusetts  the  average 
fell  far  short  of  three  hundred  dollars  for  each  adult  and 
child.  Socially,  however,  it  was  doubtless  a  failure;  as  an 
ecclesiastical  aristocracy,  especially  when  it  contravenes 
an  important  law  of  nature,  must  always  be.  Rapp  was 
an  absolute  ruler,  assuming  to  be  such  by  virtue  of  a  divine 
call,  and  it  was  said,  probably  with  truth,  that  he  desired 
to  sell  Harmony  because  life  there  was  getting  to  be  easy 
and  quiet,  with  leisure  for  thought,  and  because  he  found 
it  difficult  to  keep  his  people  in  order  excepting  during  the 
bustle  and  hard  work  which  attended  a  new  settlement. 

28 


THE   RAPPITES   IN   INDIANA 

At  all  events,  he  commissioned  Mr,  Flower  to  offer  the 
whole  property  for  sale. 

"  When  my  father  reached  the  place,  he  found  among 
the  Germans,  its  sole  occupants,  indications  of  plenty  and 
material  comfort,  but  with  scarcely  a  touch  of  fancy  or 
ornament,  save  the  flowers  in  the  gardens,  and  what  was 
called  the  labyrinth. 

"  The  toil  and  suffering  had  left  their  mark,  however, 
on  the  grave,  stolid,  often  sad  German  faces.  They  looked 
well  fed,  well  clothed  (so  my  father  told  me),  and  seemed 
free  from  anxiety.  The  animal  had  been  sufficiently  cared 
for,  and  that  is  a  great  deal  in  a  world  where  millions  can 
hardly  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door,  drudge  as  they  will; 
where  hundreds  of  millions,  manage  as  they  may,  live  in 
daily  uncertainty  whether  in  the  next  week  or  month 
{chance  of  work  or  means  of  living  failing),  absolute 
penury  may  not  fall  to  their  lot.  A  shelter  from  life-wear- 
ing cares  is  something;  but  a  temple  typifies  higher  things 
— more  than  what  we  shall  eat,  and  what  we  shall  drink, 
and  wherewithal  we  shall  be  clothed.  Eapp's  disciples 
had  bought  this  dearly — at  the  expense  of  heart  and  soul. 
They  purchased  them  by  unquestioned  submission  to  an 
autocrat  who  had  been  commissioned — perhaps  as  he  really 
believed,  certainly  as  he  alleged — ^by  God  himself.  He 
bade  them  do  this  and  that,  and  they  did  it — commanded 
them  to  forego  wedded  life  and  all  its  incidents,  and  to 
this  also  they  assented." 


29 


CHAPTEE   IV 

THE   RAPPITE  HEGIRA 

*'  In  the  twenty-fourth  of  May,  1824,  we  have  departed.  Lord, 
with  thy  great  help  and  goodness,  in  body  and  soul  protect  us," — In- 
scription under  a  stairway  in  Community  House  No.  2,  at  New  Har- 
mony, left  by  one  of  the  Kappites. 


cc 


Ten  years  after  the  Eappite  advance-guard  reached 
Harmonie,"  the  Harmonists  made  way  for  the  advance  of 
a  more  interesting  social  experiment.  The  sale  of  the 
estate  is  curiously  connected  with  the  history  of  the  famous 
English  settlement  in  Edwards  County,  Illinois,  established 
by  Eichard  Flower  on  an  estate  of  twenty  thousand  acres 
in  1818.  Mr.  Flower  and  his  associates  had  intimate  busi- 
ness relations  with  the  Eappites,  and  frequently  visited  the 
Harmonist  colony.  In  18^8,  an  effort  was  made  to  legalize 
slavery  in  Illinois,  and  in  the  front  rank  of  the  opposition 
were  the  English  colonists  in  Edwards  County,  led  by  Eich- 
ard Flower,  and  his  son  Edward,  then  a  youth  of  eighteen. 
The  antislavery  campaign  was  successful,  but  the  activity 
of  the  Flowers  was  so  distasteful  to  those  favorable  to 
slavery,  that  attempts  were  made  to  assassinate  the  young 
man.  His  father  deemed  it  prudent  to  take  him  to  Eng- 
land to  remain  until  the  excitement  should  subside.  Before 
leaving  he  was  commissioned  to  sell  the  Harmonist  prop- 
erty by  Father  Eapp,  who  offered  him  a  commission  of 
five  thousand  dollars.  Edward  Flower  never  returned  to 
America,  but  achieved  great  prominence  in  England  as  a 
participant  in  several  reform  movements,  notably  the  agi- 
tation for  the  abolition  of  the  check-rein  on  horses.  His 
daughter  Sarah  wrote  the  hymn.  Nearer  My  God  to  Thee. 

30 


THE   RAPPITE   HEGIRA 

During  the  Civil  War  Edward  Flower  took  the  platform  in 
England  in  behalf  of  the  Union  cause. 

The  elder  Flower  visited  New  Lanark,  and  laid  before 
Eobert  Owen  the  advantages  of  Harmony  as  a  site  for  a 
communistic  establishment  in  the  New  World,  where  Mr. 
Owen  might  work  out  in  practise  theories  long  promul- 
gated by  him.  The  sale  was  effected,  the  whole  tract  with 
all  its  improvements,  and  most  of  the  valuable  equipments, 
going  for  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 

Strong  reasons  must  have  impelled  Father  Eapp  in  his 
desire  to  move  the  colony  back  to  Pennsylvania,  for  this 
sale  was  made  at  a  great  sacrifice,  though  at  a  large  advance 
over  the  original  expenditure  ten  years  before.  Double 
the  sum  received  would  have  been  a  modest  estimate  of  the 
value  of  this  princely  estate  and  well-built  town.  Eemoval, 
too,  meant  the  sacrifice  of  a  trade  extending  all  over  the 
adjacent  States,  and  down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans, 
as  well  as  the  abandonment  of  prosperous  stores  at  Vin- 
cennes,  Indiana,  and  Shawneetown,  Illinois.  Nordhoff 
catalogues  the  Eappites'  reasons  for  leaving  Indiana  as 
fever,  ague,  unpleasant  neighbors,  and  remoteness  from 
business  centers,  from  all  of  which  causes  they  had  indeed 
suffered.  But  fever  and  ague,  according  to  the  statements 
of  the  Harmonists  themselves,  had  about  disappeared  in 
1824,  and  the  Eappites  ought  easily  to  have  been  able  to 
defend  themselves  against  the  depredations  of  unorganized 
squatters.  According  to  Dr.  Schnack,  one  authority  states 
that  the  Harmonist  property  had  become  involved,  and 
that  Eapp  was  compelled  to  sell;  it  is  certain,  however,  that 
the  Eappites  had  sufficient  funds  to  redeem  their  property 
from  any  such  complications,  for  within  eight  years  after 
their  return  to  Pennsylvania,  they  not  only  paid  for  their 
estate,  and  erected  upon  it  the  village  of  Economy,  but 
were  able  to  pay  one  hundred  and  five  thousand  dollars 
to  a  party  of  seceders.  Another  authority  says:  "  I  have 
been  informed  that  Mr.  Eapp  adopted  this  plan  in  order  to 

31 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

liave  the  new  deeds  made  out  in  his  name,  and  thus  hold 
possession  of  all  the  landed  property,  as  well  as  the  control 
of  the  funds  for  which  Harmony  was  sold."  There  seems 
to  be  no  evidence  to  corroborate  this  supposition.  Doubt- 
less the  Harmonists  found  some  difficulty  in  transporting 
supplies  from  Pittsburg,  and  Frederick  Eapp  realized  that 
a  better  market  for  their  products  would  be  afforded  in  the 
East. 

With  the  proceeds  of  the  Harmony  sale,  an  estate  was 
purchased  in  Beaver  County,  Pennsylvania,  eighteen  miles 
below  Pittsburg,  on  the  Ohio  Eiver,  not  far  from  the  site  of 
their  first  settlement.  A  steamboat  was  built  for  the  Eap- 
pites,  and  they  ascended  the  Ohio  in  detachments.  A  vil- 
lage was  built,  and  called  Economy.  In  Economy  the  Har- 
monist society  has  remained,  its  uneventful  history  broken 
only  by  the  great  secession  of  1831-^32,  a  brief  account 
of  which  we  obtain  from  Nordhoff's  Communistic  Societies 
of  the  United  States: 

"  In  1831  there  came  to  Economy  a  German  adventurer, 
Eernhard  Muller  by  name,  who  had  assumed  the  title 
'  Graf,^  or  Count  Maximilian  de  Leon,  and  had  gathered  a 
following  of  visionary  Germans,  whom  he  imposed,  with 
himself,  upon  the  Harmonists,  on  a  pretense  that  he  was  a 
believer  with  them  in  religious  matters."  (Another  au- 
thority states  that  Muller  claimed  to  have  come  directly 
from  Wiirttemberg.)  "  He  proved  to  be  a  wretched  intri- 
guer, who  brought  ruin  on  all  those  who  connected  them- 
selves with  him,  and  who  began  at  once  to  make  trouble  in 
Economy.  Having  secured  a  lodgment,  he  began  to  an- 
nounce strange  doctrines;  marriage,  a  livelier  life,  and 
other  temptations  to  worldliness,  and  he  finally  succeeded 
in  effecting  a  serious  division,  which,  if  it  had  not  been 
prudently  managed,  might  have  destroyed  the  community. 
After  bitter  disputes,  at  last  affairs  came  to  such  a  pass, 
that  a  vote  had  to  be  taken  in  order  to  decide  who  were 
faithful  to  the  old  order,  and  to  Eapp,  and  who  were  to 

32 


THE   EAPPITE   HEGIBA 

Count  de  Leon,  before  an  agreement  was  reached."  When 
the  vote  was  taken,  it  was  found  that  five  hundred  stood 
with  Father  Eapp,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  with  Count 
de  Leon.  When  Father  Rapp  heard  the  result  he  quoted 
from  the  book  of  Eevelation:  "  And  the  tail  of  the  serpent 
drew  the  third  part  of  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  did  cast 
them  to  earth." 

"  The  end  of  the  dispute,"  continued  Nordhoff,  "  was 
an  agreement,  under  which  the  society  bound  itself  to  pay 
to  those  who  adhered  to  Count  de  Leon,  one  hundred  and 
five  thousand  dollars  in  three  instalments,  all  payable 
within  twelve  months;  the  other  side  agreeing  on  their  part, 
to  leave  Economy  within  three  months,  taking  with  them 
only  their  clothing  and  household  furniture,  and  relin- 
quishing all  claims  upon  the  property  of  the  society.  This 
agreement  was  made  in  March,  1832,  and  Leon  and  his 
followers  withdrew  to  Philipsburg,  a  village  ten  miles  below 
Economy,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  they  bought 
eight  hundred  acres  of  land.  Here  they  set  up  a  society 
on  communistic  principles,  but  permitted  marriage,  and 
here  they  very  quickly  wasted  the  large  sum  of  money  they 
had  received  from  the  Rappites,  and  after  a  desperate  and 
lawless  attempt  to  extort  more  money  from  the  Economy 
people,  which  was  happily  defeated.  Count  de  Leon  ab- 
sconded with  a  few  of  his  people  in  a  boat  to  Alexandria, 
on  the  Red  River,  where  he  perished  of  cholera  in  1832. 
Those  he  had  deluded  meantime  divided  the  Philipsburg 
property  among  themselves,  and  set  up  each  for  himself, 
and  a  number  afterward  joined  Dr.  Keil  in  forming  the 
Bethel  community  in  Missouri." 

Nordhoff  points  out  the  fact  that  the  Harmonists  had 
demonstrated  in  this  transaction  their  great  prosperity  dur- 
ing the  few  years  of  their  existence  as  a  community.  In 
twenty-seven  years  they  had  built  three  towns,  and  endured 
all  the  expense  and  loss  of  three  removals,  and  yet  they 
were  able  to  produce  this  immense  sum  of  ready  cash.  The 
4  33 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

Harmonists,  at  the  time  of  their  removal  from  Indiana, 
were  reported  to  be  worth  a  million  dollars,  and  New  Har- 
mony tradition  has  it  that  bullion  was  conveyed  from 
Father  Eapp's  cellars  in  wagon-loads  to  the  boat  which 
conveyed  the  Eappites  to  Economy.  "  During  this  whole 
time,  moreover,"  says  Nordhoff,  "  they  had  lived  a  life  of 
comfort  and  social  order,  such  as  few  individual  settlers  in 
our  Western  States  at  that  time  could  command/' 

George  Eapp  died  on  August  7,  1847,  greatly  mourned 
by  his  people.  One  of  his  last  hours  was  spent  in  preaching 
to  the  Harmonist  congregation  from  his  death-bed,  through 
the  open  window.  Shortly  before  his  death,  he  called  the 
members  to  his  bedside,  one  by  one,  where  he  bade  them 
good-by  and  exhorted  them  to  the  perpetuation  of  the  prin- 
ciples he  had  taught  them.  After  his  burial,  the  members 
again  signed  the  agreement.  R.  L.  Baker,  long  since  dead, 
and  Jacob  Henrici,  who  died  on  Christmas  morning,  1892, 
were  elected  to  succeed  him,  ruling  in  conjunction  with 
seven  elders.  Henrici  was  succeeded  in  the  senior  trustee- 
ship by  John  Duss,  a  young  man  who  had  been  educated 
in  the  schools  of  Economy,  but  drifted  West  in  early  man- 
hood. In  Missouri  he  became  a  school-teacher,  a  candi- 
date for  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  and  owner  of 
a  cattle-ranch.  Being  called  to  Economy  to  take  charge 
of  the  schools,  he  became  successively  elder,  junior  trustee 
and  senior  trustee  and  ruler  of  the  society.  Strangely 
enough,  this  successor  to  the  authority  of  George  Rapp  is 
a  married  man  with  two  children. 

But  for  the  executive  ability  of  John  Duss,  it  is  gen- 
erally agreed  that  the  accumulations  of  the  Rappites  would 
have  been  entirely  swept  away.  Large  sums  were  lost 
through  unfortunate  investments,  and  the  mills  ceased  to 
be  profitable.  Thirty  years  ago  the  wealth  of  the  Rappites 
was  variously  estimated  at  from  $10,000,000  to  $30,000,- 
000,  but  when  Trustee  Duss  succeeded  to  the  management 
of  the  society's  affairs,  the  community  was  found  to  be 

34 


THE   RAPPITE   HEGIRA 

almost  bankrupt,  with  lawsuits  on  hand  that  threatened 
to  wipe  out  the  last  vestige  of  the  vast  property.  By 
careful  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  community, 
Mr.  Duss  succeeded  in  saving  several  hundred  thousand 
dollars  after  clearing  the  society  of  debt. 

The  Kappite  organization  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  com- 
munity and  became  a  close  corporation  administered  for 
the  benefit  of  a  dwindUng  membership.  Having  placed 
the  affairs  of  the  society  on  a  safe  financial  basis.  Trustee 
Duss  removed  to  New  York,  where  he  devotes  himself  to 
music  as  leader  of  a  celebrated  concert  orchestra.  Mrs. 
Duss  was  left  to  manage  the  town  of  Economy.  Only  six 
members  of  the  society  remain,  Mr.  Duss  and  his  wife  and 
four  others  related  to  the  family.  Under  court  decisions, 
the  litigation  having  been  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  Trustee  Duss  is  empowered  to  wind  up 
the  affairs  of  the  society,  and  with  the  passing  of  the  prop- 
erty into  individual  hands,  the  organization  will  cease  to 
exist  even  in  name.  In  1903,  the  Liberty  Land  Company,  a 
sjmdicate  of  Pittsburg  capitalists,  purchased  the  entire  Eap- 
pite  estate  of  twenty-five  hundred  acres  for  a  price  said  to 
be  four  million  dollars,  only  three  blocks  in  the  town  of 
Economy  and  some  property  in  Beaver  Falls  being  reserved. 
With  these  three  blocks  were  retained  the  Eapp  mansion 
and  its  gardens,  the  old  music-hall  and  its  quaint  belfry,  and 
the  large  barn  for  live  stock.  Before  many  years  have 
passed  the  lands  once  tilled  by  the  Rappites  will  be  grown 
over  with  factories  and  homes,  the  last  of  those  who  lived 
and  labored  in  the  hope  of  realizing  the  communism  of  the 
early  Christians  will  be  laid  to  rest  under  the  moundless 
greensward  of  the  Eappite  burying-ground,  the  last  dollar 
of  the  millions  heaped  up  through  the  patient  labor  of  the 
stolid  Harmonists  will  have  passed  to  individual  bank- 
accounts,  and  amid  the  smoke  and  noise  of  a  Pennsylvania 
industrial  center  there  will  be  no  more  to  mark  the  spot 
where  George  Eapp  preached  to  his  simple  followers  the 

35 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

gospel  of  self-effacement,  than  remains  in  the  quiet 
Economy  churchyard  to  indicate  the  place  where  the  Rap- 
pites  laid  their  patriarchal  leader  to  rest  more  than  a 
half  century  ago. 

•  >•••••«• 

With  the  other  buildings  conveyed  to  Robert  Owen  at 
New  Harmony  was  the  immense  church  of  the  Rappites. 
For  a  time  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Owenite  communi- 
ties, this  building  was  partitioned  off  in  rooms,  but  after 
William  Maclure's  death  it  was  presented  to  St.  Stephen's 
Episcopal  Church.  The  east  wing  was  for  years  used  as  a 
ballroom,  and  the  room  south  for  a  theater,  the  walls 
being,  according  to  Dr.  Schnack,  "  beautifully  frescoed  and 
painted."  Later  a  part  of  the  building  was  used  as  a  pork- 
packing  establishment.  In  1874  the  Rappites  sent  Jona- 
than Lentz  to  New  Harmony.  He  purchased  the  church 
building  and  the  lot  upon  which  it  stood.  Of  the  large 
building  he  tore  down  all  but  the  east  wing,  using  the  brick 
to  construct  the  wall  which  protects  the  Rappite  cemetery 
to  this  day.  This  wall  is  one  foot  thick,  five  feet  high,  cov- 
ered with  a  heavy  limestone  coping,  and  guarded  by  iron 
gates.  The  Harmonists  gave  the  church  lot,  together  with 
the  remaining  material  and  the  wing  standing,  to  the  town 
of  New  Harmony.  They  also  gave  two  thousand  dollars 
of  the  sum  necessary  to  construct  the  building  which, 
until  a  few  years  ago,  was  occupied  by  the  library  of  the 
working  men's  institute,  and  is  now  used  as  a  public 
school.  According  to  an  inscription,  this  building  was 
erected  "  In  memory  of  the  Harmony  Society,  founded 
by  George  Rapp,  1805."  With  this  act  of  philanthropy, 
the  connection  of  the  Rappites  with  New  Harmony  ceased. 

Thirty  years  ago,  a  writer  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  well 
foreshadowed  the  destiny  of  the  Harmony  Society.  "It 
needs  no  second  thought,"  he  said,  "  to  discern  the  end  of 
Rapp's  schemes.  His  single  strength  sustained  the  colony 
during  his  life,  and  since  his  death  one  or  two  strong  wills 

36 


1 


THE  OLD   FORT  AS  BUILT. 
From  a  drawing  by  J.  L.  Parke. 


THE  LIBBARY 
OF  THE 


THE   RAPPITE   EEGIRA 

• 

have  kept  it  from  crumbling  to  pieces,  and  converted  the 
whole  machinery  of  this  system  into  a  powerful  money- 
making  agent.  These  men  are  the  means  by  which  it 
keeps  a  hand  on  the  world,  on  the  market,  perhaps  I  should 
say.  They  are  intelligent,  able,  honorable,  too,  we  are  glad 
to  know,  for  the  sake  of  the  quiet  creatures  drowsing  away 
their  remnant  of  life,  fat  and  contented,  driving  their  plows 
through  the  fields,  or  sitting  on  the  stoops  of  the  village 
when  evening  comes.  I  wonder  if  they  ever  cast  a  furtive 
glance  at  the  world,  and  the  life  from  which  Kapp's  edict 
so  early  shut  them  out.  When  they  finish  working,  one 
by  one,  the  great  revenues  of  the  society  will  probably  fall 
into  the  hands  of  two  or  three,  and  be  returned  into  the 
small  currents  of  trade,  according  to  the  rapid  sequence 
which  always  follows  the  accretion  of  large  properties  in 
this  country." 

From  a  sordid  standpoint,  at  least,  we  may  denominate 
the  Harmony  Society  a  successful  communism;  its  history 
perhaps  forms  the  nearest  approach  to  •  a  justification  of 
communistic  association,  but  to  what  extent  this  justifica- 
tion continues  is  a  question  which  can  only  be  determined 
by  a  careful  analysis  of  the  primary  elements  contributing 
to  this  success.  What  may  be  said  of  the  Harmony  Society 
in  this  connection  may  in  large  part  be  declared  of  all 
religious  communistic  associations  in  America,  which  have 
been  the  only  successful  attempts  at  community  life. 
"  The  temporary  success  of  the  Hernhutters,  the  Moravians, 
the  Shakers,  and  even  the  Eappites,"  says  Miss  Peabody, 
in  Christ's  Idea  of  Society,  "  has  cleared  away  difficulties 
and  solved  problems  of  social  science.  It  has  been  made 
plain  that  the  material  goods  of  life  are  not  to  be  sacrificed 
in  doing  fuller  justice  to  the  social  principles.  It  has  been 
proved  that  with  the  same  degree  of  labor,  there  is  no  way 
to  compare  with  that  of  working  in  a  community,  banded 
by  some  sufficient  idea  to  animate  the  will  of  the  laborers. 
A  greater  quantity  of  wealth  is  procured  with  fewer  hours 

37 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

of  toil,  and  without  any  degradation  to  the  lahorer.  AH 
these  commnnities  have  demonstrated  what  the  practical 
Dr.  Franklin  said,  that  if  every  one  worked  bodily  three 
hours  daily,  there  would  be  no  necessity  of  any  one's  work- 
ing more  than  three  hours."  Many  economic  ideas  of  the 
present  day  are  based  upon  such  suppositions  regarding  the 
success  of  cooperative  labor  like  that  of  the  Harmonists. 
Eobert  Owen  received  much  of  his  communistic  inspiration 
from  the  apparent  success  of  the  Eappites,  and  the  origin 
of  every  American  communism  can  be  traced  to  a  belief 
that  these  experiments  have  demonstrated  the  practicabil- 
ity of  communistic  principles.  This  success,  in  a  great 
degree,  however,  seems  to  have  sprung  from  favorable  cir- 
cumstances not  the  result  of  communistic  association,  while 
we  may  reasonably  inquire  if  there  has  not  been,  indeed, 
a  degradation  of  the  laborer,  and  whether  his  life  has  not 
been  even  harder  and  more  barren  of  compensating  advan- 
tages than  the  life  which  the  individual  system  would  have 
offered  him. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Eappites,  the  Shakers,  the  Am- 
anaites,  and  in  fact  most  of  the  communistic  societies  which 
have  proved  successful,  secured  advantages  by  the  purchase 
of  large  tracts  of  wild  land  at  a  low  price.  The  land  held 
by  the  Harmonists  in  Indiana  increased  in  value  after 
their  departure  far  more  in  proportion  than  did  the  wealth 
of  the  Eappites.  They  owned,  before  leaving  Indiana,  for 
instance,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  site  of  the  city  of 
Terre  Haute,  which  George  Eapp  secured  in  foreclosing  a 
mortgage  of  something  over  a  thousand  dollars.  This  new 
country,  moreover,  afforded  an  unusually  profitable  market 
for  manufactured  goods,  since  manufactures  had  then  been 
little  developed.  The  German  peasants  who  made  up  the 
Harmony  Society,  and  other  successful  religious  com- 
munities, were  thrifty  and  industrious.  Moreover  they 
worked,  not  three,  but  ten  hours  a  day.  The  Harmonists 
were  peculiarly  prepared  for  their  communistic  state  by 

38 


THE   RAPPITE   HEGIRA 

their  previous  experiences  in  Germany.  They  had  little  of 
the  American  idea  of  liberty,  and  had  endured  such  in- 
tolerance of  private  opinion  and  suppression  of  religious 
freedom  that  even  the  rigid  discipline  of  the  new  society 
afforded  relief.  In  their  simplicity,  these  peasants  were 
pleased  and  satisfied  by  the  freedom  from  responsibility, 
and  the  good  food  and  clothing  which  the  community 
afforded  them.  The  contemplation  of  the  hard  life  of  the 
pioneers  about  them  made  the  community  seem  a  haven  of 
refuge.  Their  exclusive  use  of  the  German  language  fur- 
nished another  barrier  against  the  outside  world.  Celibacy 
was  one  secret  of  their  material  success.  There  were  few 
children  to  rear  and  educate;  this  unproductive  class  of  ac- 
cessions was  supplanted  by  the  entrance  of  able-bodied  men 
and  women,  many  of  whom  added  considerable  wealth  to 
that  of  the  society.  Celibacy  has  been  a  rule  of  practically 
every  successful  communism.  We  are  frequently  reminded 
of  the  Amana  Society,  in  Iowa,  as  an  example  of  commu- 
nistic success  under  the  family  system.  But  while  the 
wealth  of  the  Harmonists  twenty  years  after  their  removal 
to  America  was  thirteen  times  as  much  per  capita  as  the 
average  in  Indiana,  and  seven  times  that  in  Massachusetts, 
it  is  shown  in  Historical  Monograph  No.  1  (1890),  of  the 
University  of  Iowa,  that  the  average  per  capita  wealth  of 
the  Amana  Society  in  1890  was  about  ten  per  cent  less  than 
the  average  wealth  in  the  State  of  Iowa:  this  after  an 
American  residence  of  nearly  fifty  years,  with  practically 
the  same  collateral  advantages  which  contributed  to  the 
wealth  of  the  Rappites.  The  Zoarites,  a  communistic  so- 
ciety in  Tuscarawas  County,  Ohio,  which  was  until  recent 
years  successful,  had  permitted  marriage  after  the  year 
1830,  although  they  taught  that  the  celibate  state  is  more 
commendable,  and  that  this  teaching  was  observed  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  they  added  only  seventy-five  to  their 
original  membership  during  the  first  fifty  years  of  their 
residence  in  this  country. 

39 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

Peculiar  reasons  made  possible  the  peaceful  and  pros- 
perous association  of  the  Harmonists.  Among  these  con- 
ditions was  ignorance  in  the  masses,  controlled  by  intelli- 
gence in  a  limited  leadership.  "  Jacobi,">  says  Noyes, 
"seems  disposed  to  give  special  prominence  to  leadership 
as  a  cause  of  success.  He  evidently  attributes  the  decline 
of  the  Beizelites,  the  Eappites,  and  the  Zoarites  to  the  old 
age  and  death  of  their  founders."  We  must  also  remember 
the  superstition  which  prevailed  among  the  Eappites,  cul- 
tivated and  directed  by  a  theocratic  head;  akin  to  this  their 
belief  in  the  near  approach  of  the  judgment-day,  which 
made  them  careless  of  private  effects. 

We  can  not  overestimate  the  importance  of  religion  as 
a  cohesive  force  in  societies  like  that  of  the  Harmonists. 
Upon  religious  grounds  their  community  was  founded; 
religion  was  the  guiding  principle  of  their  daily  lives. 
"  Eeligion,"  says  Horace  Greeley  in  his  Kecollections  of  a 
Busy  Life,  "  often  makes  practicable  that  which  were  else 
impossible,  and  divine  love  triumphs  where  human  science 
is  baffled.  Thus  I  interpret  the  past  successes  and  failures 
of  socialism.  .  .  .  With  a  firm  and  deep  religious 
basis,  any  socialistic  scheme  may  succeed,  though  vicious 
in  organization  and  at  war  with  human  nature;  without 
a  basis  of  religious  S3nnpathy  and  religious  aspiration  it 
will  always  be  difficult,  though  I  judge  not  impossible.'^ 
^^  Communities  based  on  religious  views  have  generally 
succeeded,"  said  Charles  A.  Dana,  in  the  New  York  Sun  of 
May  1,  1869.  "  The  Shakers  and  the  Oneida  community 
are  conspicuous  illustrations  of  this  fact,  while  the  failure 
of  the  various  attempts  made  by  the  disciples  of  Owen, 
Fourier,  and  others,  who  have  not  the  support  of  religious 
fanaticism,  proves  that  without  this  great  force  the  most 
brilliant  social  theories  are  of  little  avail." 

How  far  has  the  destruction  of  the  family  in  the  Eapp- 
ite  and  other  communities  contributed  to  the  possibility  of 
individual  effacement?     Is  the  institution  of  marriage  in 

40 


THE   RAPPITE   HEGIRA 

its  present  form  based  upon  and  a  preserver  of  individual- 
ism? Is  family  life  as  now  constituted  a  stumbling-block 
in  the  way  of  socialism,  in  so  far  as  socialism  proposes  to 
broaden  sympathy  for  the  circumscribed  family  circle  until 
it  becomes  sympathy  for  universal  mankind?  Advocates 
of  communism  have  almost  invariably  proposed  to  destroy, 
change,  or  regulate  the  institution  of  marriage.  Eobert 
Owen  declared  that  marriage  based  on  the  possession  of 
private  property  was  "  one  of  the  great  trinity  of  evils 
which  have  cursed  the  world  ever  since  the  creation  of 
man."  The  Oneida  Perfectionists  "  proposed  to  abolish 
family  ties  by  the  institution  of  free  love."  The  Zoarite 
elders  opposed  marriage  "  because  it  makes  a  division  of 
interests  among  the  brethren."  Jacobi  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  in  nearly  all  communistic  associations  at- 
tended by  a  degree  of  success,  marriage  is  sacrificed  for 
communism.  John  Humphrey  Noyes  cites  an  article  by 
Charles  Lane,  a  Fourierist,  in  the  Dial  of  January,  1844, 
in  which  he  says: 

"  The  maternal  instinct,  as  hitherto  educated,  has  de- 
clared itself  so  strongly  in  favor  of  the  separate  fireside, 
that  association,  which  appears  so  beautiful  to  the  young 
and  unattached  soul,  has  yet  accomplished  little  progress 
in  the  affections  of  that  important  section  of  the  human 
race — the  mothers.  With  fathers,  the  feeling  in  favor  of 
the  separate  family  is  certainly  less  strong;  but  there  is  an 
indefinable  tie,  a  sort  of  magnetic  rapport,  an  invisible, 
inseverable  umbilical  cord  between  the  mother  and  the 
child,  which  in  most  cases  circumscribes  her  desires  and 
aspirations  for  her  own  immediate  family.  All  the  ac- 
cepted adages  and  wise  saws  of  society,  all  the  precepts  of 
morality,  all  the  sanctions  of  theology  have  for  ages  been 
employed  to  confirm  this  feeling.  .  .  .  The  question 
of  association  and  of  marriage  are  one.  If,  as  we  have  been 
popularly  led  to  believe,  the  individual  or  separate  family 
is  the  true  order  of  Providence,  then  the  associative  life  is 

41 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

a  false  effort.  If  the  associative  life  is  true,  then  the  sepa- 
rate family  is  a  false  arrangement.  By  the  maternal  feel- 
ing it  seems  to  be  decided  that  the  coexistence  of  both  is 
incompatible,  is  impossible.  .  .  .  That  the  affections 
can  be  divided,  or  bent  with  equal  ardor  on  two  objects  so 
opposed  as  universal  and  individual  love,  may  at  least  be 
rationally  doubted.  .  .  .  The  monasteries  and  con- 
vents which  have  existed  in  all  ages  have  existed  solely  by 
the  annihilation  of  that  peculiar  affection  on  which  the 
separate  family  is  based.  .  .  .  Spite  of  the  specula- 
tions of  hopeful  bachelors  and  esthetic  spinsters,  there  is 
somewhat  in  the  marriage-bond  which  is  found  to  counter- 
act the  universal  nature  of  the  affections,  to  a  degree,  tend- 
ing at  least  to  make  the  considerate  pause  before  they  assert 
that,  by  any  social  arrangements  whatever,  the  two  can  be 
blended  into  one  harmony.  .  .  .  It  is  only  the  deter- 
mination to  do  what  parents  consider  best  for  their  families 
and  themselves  which  renders  the  o'erpopulous  world  such 
a  wilderness  of  selfhood  as  it  is.  Destroy  this  feeling,  they 
ssLj,  and  you  prohibit  every  motive  to  exertion." 


42 


CHAPTEE  Y 

EOBEET  OWEN  AND  THE  INDUSTRIAL  EEYOLUTION 


V 


"  As  long  as  he  was  merely  a  philanthropist  he  was  rewarded  with 
nothing  but  applause,  wealth,  honor,  and  glory.  He  was  the  most 
popular  man  in  Europe-  Not  only  men  of  his  own  class,  but  states- 
men and  princes  listened  to  him  approvingly." — Frederick  Engels. 

"  The  interest  of  the  life  of  Eobert  Owen/'  as  his  friend 
and  biographer,  Lloyd  Jones,  has  said,  "lies  not  in  the 
completeness  of  its  success,  but  in  its  practical  wisdom  and 
devotion  to  principle."  Yet,  measured  from  a  strictly- 
practical  standpoint,  the  work  of  Eobert  Owen  has  not 
been  without  its  great  results.  Frederick  Engels  declares: 
"Every  social  movement,  every  real  advance  in  England 
on  behalf  of  the  workers,  links  itself  on  to  the  name  of 
Eobert  Owen."  Eobert  Owen  has  been  called  "  The  Father 
of  English  Socialism."  The  great  labor  cooperative  socie- 
ties of  Great  Britain,  which  now  number  sixteen  hundred, 
with  two  million  registered  members,  and  seven  million 
patrons,  doing  an  annual  business  of  four  hundred  million 
dollars,  have  conferred  inestimable  benefits  upon  the 
working  people  of  Great  Britain.  They  are  in  large  part 
a  monument  to  Eobert  Owen's  philanthropic  labors.  "  His 
specific  plans  as  a  social  reformer,"  writes  Eobert  Dale 
Owen,  "  proved  on  the  whole,  and  for  the  time,  a 
failure,  .  .  .  yet,  with  such  earnestness,  such  indom- 
itable perseverance,  and  such  devotion  and  love  for  his 
race,  did  he  press,  through  half  a  century,  his  plans  upon 
the  public,  and  so  much  truth  was  there  mixed  with  vision- 
ary expectation,  that  his  name  became  known,  and  the 

43 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

influence  of  his  teachings  has  been  more  or  less  felt  over 
the  civilized  world.  A  failure  in  gross  has  been  attended 
by  sterling  incidental  successes,  and  toward  the  great  idea 
of  cooperation — quite  impracticable  as  he  conceived  it — - 
there  has  been,  ever  since  his  death,  very  considerable  ad- 
vance made,  and  generally  recognized  by  earnest  men  as 
eminently  useful  and  important." 

A  brief  review  of  the  social  and  industrial  conditions 
which  gave  occasion  and  purpose  to  the  career  of  Eobert 
Owen  is  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  his  life  and  work. 
The  concluding  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  marked 
the  beginning  of  an  industrial  revolution.  Human  power 
had  received  a  magnificent  impetus  from  an  era  of  great 
invention,  but  this  increase  of  power  brought  in  its  imme- 
diate train  serious  results  for  the  laboring  classes  of  Eng- 
land. Machinery  began  to  supplant  manual  labor  so  sud- 
denly and  so  rapidly,  especially  in  the  great  cotton 
industry,  that  thousands  of  men,  willing  to  labor,  were  de- 
prived of  employment.  Factory-owners  began  to  realize 
immensely  upon  their  investments.  While  their  establish- 
ments were  enlarged,  wages  were  reduced,  for  not  only  were 
the  recently  employed  clamoring  for  work,  but  the  rural 
population  was  flocking  by  thousands  to  the  factories  on 
account  of  the  prevalent  agricultural  depression. 

In  many  ways  the  whole  population  of  England  suffered 
from  this  rapid  transformation.  The  expense  of  machin- 
ery, and  inability  to  compete  with  the  greater  facilities  of 
the  large  factories,  caused  the  extinction  of  the  smaller 
establishments.  As  a  result,  the  personal  relation  which 
had  formerly  existed  between  employer  and  employee  was 
destroyed,  to  the  infinite  damage  of  the  latter.  Intoxi- 
cated with  the  possibilities  of  wealth  so  suddenly  opened 
before  them,  the  great  factory-owners  gave  no  heed  to  the 
welfare  of  their  thousands  of  employees.  The  workmen 
were  herded  together  in  squalid  and  crowded  quarters,  with 
none  of  the  comforts  or  pleasures  of  wholesome  home  life. 

44 


TEE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION 

No  provisions  were  made  for  the  education  of  eliildren  who 
were  employed  by  thousands  in  the  factories.  The  intel- 
lectual and  moral  results  of  such  a  system  were  deplor- 
able. The  English  laboring  classes,  but  a  generation  be- 
fore happy,  independent,  and  respected,  became,  in  effect, 
slaves  to  their  grasping  employers.  Everywhere  in  these 
large  establishments  ignorance  and  vice  were  prevalent  to 
an  alarming  extent.  Whereas  the  passage  of  an  employee 
from  a  lower  to  a  higher  state  could  formerly  be  effected 
with  little  difficulty,  under  the  new  regime  it  became  almost 
impossible.  The  majority  of  those  engaged  in  manufac- 
turing must,  from  the  nature  of  things,  remain  laborers. 
It  became  more  difficult  to  ascend  the  social  ladder.  The 
division  of  labor  resulted  in  simplifying  the  task  of  each 
workman,  making  him  a  mere  cog  in  a  great  machine,  and 
thus  rendering  him  more  dependent.  Luxury  increased 
among  the  upper  classes,  and  class  feeling  was  developed. 
^'  The  rich  man,"  says  one  writer,  "  came  to  labor  only  for 
the  increase  of  his  capital,  the  poor  man  to  satisfy  the 
cravings  of  his  stomach." 

By  strange  coincidence,  this  enslavement  of  the  English 
working  classes  came  at  a  time  when  ideas  of  political  free- 
dom were  everywhere  in  the  ascendant.  In  France  and  in 
America  old  political  institutions  had  been  shattered,  and 
flushed  with  their  success,  the  people  looked  forward  to  the 
near  approach  of  a  social  as  well  as  a  political  millennium. 
They  had  looked  upon  monarchical  institutions  as  the 
source  of  all  inequalities  of  condition,  and  seemed  to  think 
that  the  disenthronement  of  royalty  meant  the  end  of  all 
unhappiness  and  oppression.  The  Continent  produced  a 
school  of  philosophers  who  advocated  a  reorganized  society 
based  upon  higher  conceptions  of  public  duty.  In  France, 
St.  Simon,  "  representative  of  a  discontented  and  impov- 
erished aristocracy,"  was  the  first  advocate  of  socialism. 
Fourier,  an  idealist,  one  of  the  middle  class,  and  Babeuf, 
a   social   reconstructionist,   were   promulgating    ideas   of 

45 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

social  regeneration  against  which  the  English  Channel 
was  no  barrier. 

"  England,"  says  Sidney  Webb,  a  Fabian  society  social- 
ist, "  was  covered  with  rotten  survivals  of  bygone  circum- 
stances. The  whole  administration  was  an  instrument  for 
class  domination  and  parasitic  nurture.  The  progress  of 
the  industrial  revolution  was  rapidly  making  obsolete  all 
laws,  customs,  proverbs,  maxims,  and  nursery  tales:  and 
the  sudden  increase  of  population  was  baffling  all  expecta- 
tions and  disconcerting  all  arrangements.  At  last  .  .  . 
'  every  man  for  himself  and  the  devil  take  the  hindmost ' 
became  the  social  creed  of  what  was  still  believed  to  be  a 
Christian  nation." 

"  At  this  juncture,"  says  Frederick  Engels,  "  there  came 
forward  as  a  reformer  a  manufacturer  twenty-nine  years 
old,  a  man  of  almost  sublime  and  childlike  simplicity  of 
character,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  few  born  leaders 
of  men."  Eobert  Owen  was  born  of  humble  parentage 
at  Newtown,  Montgomeryshire,  Wales,  May  14,  1771. 
Though  fond  of  learning,  his  schooling  was  quite  limited, 
for  when  but  ten  years  old  he  went  to  London  to  become 
an  apprentice  to  a  Stamford  draper.  Fortunately  he  found 
a  well-selected  library  in  the  home  of  his  employer,  and 
five  hours  a  day  were  regularly  spent  by  the  boy  in  eager 
reading.  At  the  close  of  his  apprenticeship,  Eobert  Owen 
took  service  with  Flint  &  Palmer,  large  retail  drapers  at 
London  Bridge,  where  he  received  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars  a  year  and  his  board.  Here  he  worked  from 
fifteen  to  eighteen  hours  a  day,  and  managed  to  save  almost 
the  whole  of  his  salary,  since  during  his  whole  lifetime, 
according  to  his  own  statement,  he  "never  indulged  an 
injurious  or  expensive  habit."  His  next  employer  was 
a  Mr.  Satterfield,  with  whom  he  remained  until  he 
reached  the  age  of  eighteen. 

Owen's  first  enterprise  on  his  own  account  was  a  part- 
nership with  a  wire-worker  named  Jones,  who  was  inter- 

46 


TEE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION 

ested  in  the  new  maclimes  just  invented  for  spinning  cot- 
ton. Into  this  business  Owen  took  five  hundred  dollars 
borrowed  from  his  brother.  The  establishment  was  soon- 
employing  forty  men  in  the  manufacture  of  spinning-ma- 
chines. As  Jones  was  not  a  partner  to  young  Owen^s  taste, 
he  sold  out  for  three  of  the  "  mules ''  which  they  were  mak- 
ing. With  this  and  other  machinery,  operated  by  three 
men,  Owen  made  fifteen  hundred  dollars  as  his  first  year's 
profit. 

Soon  afterward  Owen  became  superintendent  of  a  Man- 
chester cotton-mill  owned  by  a  Mr.  Drinkwater.  The- 
young  man  assumed  the  whole  responsibility  of  managing 
the  factory,  in  which  five  hundred  men  were  employed.  So 
successfully  did  he  fill  this  position  that  the  quality  of 
goods  manufactured  by  the  Drinkwater  mill  soon  com- 
manded a  fifty  per  cent  advance  above  regular  prices.  His 
services  were  recognized  by  an  increase  of  salary,  and  an 
agreement  of  partnership  with  Mr.  Drinkwater,  which  was 
signed  by  Owen  at  the  age  of  twenty.  In  1791  Mr.  Owen 
used  the  first  sea-island  cotton  brought  into  England 
from  America,  which  was  soon  to  furnish  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  raw  material  used  in  English  cotton-mills. 
Soon  after  the  partnership  was  formed,  Mr.  Drinkwater's  -^ 
daughter  was  married  to  a  wealthy  cotton-manufacturer, 
who  desired  to  enter  the  partnership.  On  the  first  intima- 
tion of  this  plan,  young  Owen  burned  up  the  agreement 
with  Mr.  Drinkwater,  and,  though  he  remained  in  his  posi- 
tion as  superintendent  until  his  successor  could  be  secured, 
he  refused  reemployment  at  any  price. 

During  Mr.  Owen's  apprenticeship  and  his  connection 
with  factory  management,  he  was  thrown  into  a  daily  con- 
tact with  the  toiling  classes  which  was  largely  to  influence 
his  conduct  as  an  employer.  He  regarded  with  sorrow  and 
indignation  the  debased  condition  of  the  laboring  people, 
and  with  alarm  the  frequent  riots  indicative  of  the  deep- 
seated  discontent  prevailing  in  the  factory  towns.     The  - 

47 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

condition  of  the  children  employed  in  factories  especially 
appealed  to  him.  Denied  a  knowledge  of  even  the  elements 
of  education,  separated  from  all  the  influences  of  home 
which  are  so  important  a  determinant  of  character,  chil- 
dren of  honest  parents  were  forced  to  work  side  by  side 
with  those  brought  from  the  workhouses  to  labor  at  star- 
vation wages.  These  children  were  habitually  flogged  and 
debarred  from  moral  and  religious  instruction.  In  such 
squalid  and  vicious  surroundings,  they  grew  to  a  sour  and 
debased  maturity.  Some  employers  attempted  in  a  clumsy 
way  to  better  these  conditions,  but  such  rare  efforts  were 
generally  rendered  useless  by  the  ignorant  sensitiveness 
of  the  poor.  Though  the  factory  act  of  Eobert  Peel  (1803) 
limited  the  hours  of  labor  to  twelve,  and  provided  for  the 
elementary  education  of  all  apprentices,  the  provisions  for 
the  enforcement  of  this  law  were  so  feeble  as  to  render 
it  practically  inoperative. 

Eobert  Owen,  soon  after  his  release  from  the  Drink- 
water  establishment,  accepted  an  offer  of  partnership  with 
Borrowdale  &  Atkinson,  a  wealthy  and  established  firm. 
In  this  factory  he  superintended  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  yarn.  During  his  connection  with  this  concern  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Manchester  literary  and  philosoph- 
ical society,  with  which  he  maintained  a  conspicuous  con- 
nection for  many  years.  It  was  under  the  supervision  of 
this  society,  at  the  instigation  of  Mr.  Owen,  that  the  inves- 
tigations were  carried  on  which  formed  the  basis  for  Sir 
Eobert  Peel's  later  bills  for  the  relief  of  the  laboring 
classes. 

Eobert  Owen's  marriage  was  the  culmination  of  a  very 
business-like  romance.  While  on  a  business  trip  to  Glas- 
gow, he  met  a  Miss  Dale,  daughter  of  David  Dale,  owner 
of  an  extensive  manufacturing  establishment  at  New  Lan- 
ark, Scotland.  Something  in  Miss  Dale's  enthusiastic 
descriptions  of  this  great  factory,  and  doubtless  something 
in  the  pleasure  which  he  felt  in  her  companionship,  in- 

48 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION 

duced  him  to  make  a  trip  to  New  Lanark  on  a  visit  to  the 
Dale  establishment.  Upon  his  return  to  Manchester,  young 
Owen  wrote  a  proposal  of  marriage  to  Miss  Dale.  Her 
acceptance  was  conditioned  on  the  doubtful  approval  of  her 
father.  The  young  manufacturer  was  too  shrewd  to  plead 
his  own  cause  at  once,  unknown  as  he  was,  but  trusted  to 
the  results  of  a  business  venture  to  win  the  coveted  con- 
sent. He  again  visited  the  factory,  thoroughly  investigated 
its  workings,  returned  to  Manchester,  and  gained  the  con- 
sent of  his  partners  to  a  project  for  purchasing  the  New 
Lanark  mills  in  connection  with  another  firm  in  which  he 
had  also  become  a  partner.  The  bargain  was  soon  con- 
cluded, the  purchase  price  being  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  His  marriage  with  Miss  Dale  was  soon  arranged, 
and  the  union  seems  to  have  been  a  most  happy  one, 
though  Miss  Dale  was  a  stanch  Presbyterian  in  religious 
doctrine,  and  Kobert  Owen  was,  to  say  the  least,  unortho- 
dox in  his  views  concerning  religion. 

On  January  1,  1800,  Robert  Owen  assumed  control 
of  the  New  Lanark  mills,  and  began  his  illustrious  career 
as  a  practical  philanthropist.  He  found  drunkenness,  neg- 
lect of  work,  and  theft  common  among  the  New  Lanark 
operatives,  though  Mr.  Dale  had  been  an  employer  more 
than  usually  considerate.  In  the  town  of  New  Lanark 
were  thirteen  or  fourteen  hundred  families,  and  from  four 
to  five  hundred  pauper  children.  The  work  which  Robert 
Owen  accomplished  in  the  training  and  development  of 
these  miserable  creatures  into  educated  and  contented  men 
and  women  gave  to  him  and  to  New  Lanark  an  interna- 
tional reputation.  Representatives  of  royalty,  philanthro- 
pists, and  educators  from  all  parts  of  Europe  journeyed 
thither  to  study  the  processes  which  Mr.  Owen  put  in  opera- 
tion for  the  betterment  of  the  working  people  in  his  mills. 

Mr.  Owen  first  sought  out  the  recognized  leaders  among 
his  employees,  and  explained  his  plans  to  them.  Though 
these  were  first  regarded  with  suspicion,  the  New  Lanark 
5  49 


THE  NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

operatives  soon  began  to  realize  his  sincerity  and  to  coop- 
erate with  him.  Owen  taught  cleanly  habits,  and  enforced 
them  in  the  town  with  such  rigor  that  there  were  frequent 
complaints  from  people  with  an  aversion  to  soap  and  sani- 
tation. He  discouraged  the  credit  system  and  established 
a  store  in  which  the  people  were  furnished  goods  at  cost, 
the  saving  being  estimated  at  twenty  per  cent.  He  insti- 
tuted a  system  of  checks  to  detect  pilfering,  and  opened  a 
debit  and  credit  account  which  at  the  end  of  each  year 
served  as  a  complete  record  of  each  workman's  conduct, 
and  as  a  guide  in  the  promotion  and  increase  of  salaries  of 
the  more  worthy.    These  were  called  "  books  of  character.'' 

In  1806  the  United  States  placed  an  embargo  on  cotton, 
and  Mr.  Owen  was  afforded  an  opportunity  to  display  his 
real  feeling  toward  the  people  in  his  employ,  and  as  Lloyd 
Jones  says,  "  to  make  a  complete  conquest  of  their  good- 
will." The  advanced  price  of  raw  material  crippled  the 
English  factories,  and,  among  others,  the  New  Lanark 
mills  were  compelled  to  close.  To  the  surprise  of  the 
employees,  their  wages  were  continued  in  full  during  this 
suspension.  Ever  after  this  occurrence,  Mr.  Owen  com- 
manded the  love  and  respect  of  the  workmen  of  New 
Lanark. 

Mr.  Owen's  partners,  however,  did  not  fully  indorse 
such  extraordinary  consideration  for  the  comfort  of  their 
employees,  and  while  such  plans  were  well  enough  as  ex- 
periments in  philanthropy,  they  did  not  regard  them  as 
business-like.  It  could  not  be  alleged  that  Mr.  Owen's 
management  was  unprojfitable,  since  the  mills,  now  begin- 
ning to  be  filled  with  a  better  educated,  more  capable  and 
more  willing  class  of  employees,  made  money  as  never  be- 
fore. Mr.  Owen  would  not  consent  to  any  change  of  policy, 
and  was  therefore  compelled  to  form  a  new  partnership  and 
make  a  new  purchase  of  the  establishment,  which  now  sold 
for  four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Owen 
proceeded  with  his  work  of  establishing  schools  and  im- 

50 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION 

proving  the  condition  of  the  working  people  until  the  mem- 
bers of  the  new  partnership  in  turn  became  dissatisfied, 
and  finally  forced  the  sale  of  the  property  at  auction. 
Though  Owen^s  enemies  alleged  that  the  value  of  the  estab- 
lishment had  depreciated  during  his  management,  an  ex- 
citing contest  for  its  possession  took  place  between  the  old 
partners  and  Mr.  Owen,  who  had  enlisted  financial  support 
from  several  wealthy  Quakers.  The  property  was  finally 
sold  to  Mr.  Owen  for  seven  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
dollars.  The  employees  at  New  Lanark  had  watched  with 
anxious  interest  the  progress  of  the  sale,  and  when  the 
news  of  Mr.  Owen's  success  came,  a  general  celebration  was 
held.  Mr.  Owen  rode  through  the  streets  in  a  carriage 
drawn  by  a  long  line  of  his  workmen,  and  there  was  an 
illumination  of  the  town  and  rejoicing  among  its  people. 
When  the  books  of  the  second  copartnership  were  balanced, 
it  was  found  that  the  profits  of  the  four  years,  after  setting 
aside  five  per  cent  interest  for  the  capital  employed,  were 
eight  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

Mr.  Owen  was  destined  again  to  be  embarrassed  by 
troubles  in  the  partnership.  From  the  standard  of  belief 
held  by  his  associates  in  business,  Mr.  Owen  was  heretical 
in  his  moral  and  religious  teachings.  In  their  eyes  the 
games  of  the  kindergarten  were  frivolous  and  vain.  Will- 
iam Allen  and  others  accused  him  of  infidelity,  and  of  pro- 
mulgating such  sentiments  among  the  people  of  New  Lan- 
ark. Though  a  committee  under  the  chairmanship  of  the 
Duke  of  Kent,  grandfather  of  the  present  King  of  Eng- 
land, acquitted  him  of  the  charge,  everything  possible  was 
thrown  in  the  way  of  the  new  schools.  Mr.  Owen  was 
finallv  forced  out  of  the  New  Lanark  mills.  From  the  be- 
ginning  his  management  had  been  financially  prosperous, 
and  the  community  had  been  made  by  him  one  of  the  hap- 
piest and  most  orderly  in  England.  The  results  of  Kob- 
ert  Owen's  work  at  New  Lanark  are  summed  up  by  an 
American  traveler  (Mr.  Griscom),  who  stayed  some  time 

51 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

at  the  place :  "  There  is  not,  I  apprehend,  to  be  found  in 
any  part  of  the  world,  a  manufacturing  community  in 
which  so  much  order,  good  government,  tranquillity,  and 
rational  happiness  prevail." 

"  Up  to  this  time,"  says  a  biographer,  "  we  see  Robert 
Owen  fighting  with  the  difficulties  by  which  he  was  imme- 
diately surrounded;  reforming  such  abuses  as  were  oper- 
ating to  the  injury  of  the  people;  giving  to  them  more 
comfort,  more  independence,  more  manliness,  more  hope; 
above  all,  gaining  among  them  that  confidence  and  coop- 
eration which  might  enable  him  to  work  out  the  changes  on 
which  he  relied  for  proving  the  practicability  of  reforms 
that  might  be  applied  to  the  rapidly  growing  cotton  indus- 
try in  all  its  branches  throughout  the  kingdom." 


52 


CHAPTER   VI 

AGITATION   IN  ENGLAND 

Labor  troubles  which  culminated  in  the  riots  of  1811 
at  last  awakened  the  conscience  of  the  English  people^  and 
brought  them  face  to  face  with  the  evil  results  of  the 
factory  system.  Eobert  Owen  and  his  following  of  reform- 
ers began  to  be  accorded  a  respectful  hearing.  Until  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  laboring  classes  found  expression  in 
desperate  crusades  against  machinery  and  the  assumption 
of  a  threatening  attitude  toward  the  emplojdng  classes,  the 
"poverty,  degradation,  deformity,  ignorance,  and  prema- 
ture death  "  suffered  in  the  crowded  factory  settlements  as 
the  result  of  overwork,  scanty  food,  and  unwholesome  sani- 
tary conditions,  seemed  to  be  regarded  with  carelessness. 

Since  1803  Robert  Owen  had  devoted  a  large  portion  of 
his  time  to  the  consideration  of  the  labor  problem,  and 
upon  this  question  wrote  voluminously.  The  year  1815 
was  for  him  a  period  of  great  activity.  He  called  a  meeting 
of  factory-owners  at  Glasgow  for  the  purpose  of  asking  the 
repeal  of  the  revenue  tariff  on  raw  cotton,  and  considering, 
means  of  improving  the  condition  of  the  working  people. 
The  first  suggestion  was  unanimously  adopted;  Owen^s 
motion  regarding  the  second  purpose  did  not  even  receive 
a  second.  Mr.  Owen  flooded  the  kingdom  with  copies  of 
the  address  delivered  by  him  at  this  session.  In  part  he 
had  said : 

"  True,  indeed,  it  is,  that  the  main  pillar  and  prop  of 
the  political  greatness  and  prosperity  of  our  country  is  a 

53 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

manufacture  which,  as  now  carried  on,  is  destructive  of  the 
health,  morals,  and  social  comfort  of  the  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple engaged  in  it.  It  is  only  since  the  introduction  of  the 
cotton  trade  that  children  at  an  age  before  they  had  ac- 
quired strength  or  mental  instruction,  have  been  forced 
into  cotton-mills,  those  receptacles,  in  too  many  instances, 
for  living  human  skeletons,  almost  disrobed  of  intellect, 
where,  as  the  business  is  often  now  conducted,  they  linger 
out  a  few  years  of  miserable  existence,  acquiring  every  bad 
habit  which  they  may  disseminate  throughout  society.  It 
is  only  since  the  introduction  of  this  trade  that  children 
and  even  grown  people  were  required  to  labor  more  than 
twelve  hours  in  a  day,  not  including  the  time  allotted  for 
meals.  It  is  only  since  the  introduction  of  this  trade  that 
the  sole  recreation  of  the  laborer  is  to  be  found  in  the  pot- 
house or  gin-shop,  and  it  is  only  since  the  introduction  of 
this  baneful  trade  that  poverty,  crime,  and  misery  have 
made  rapid  and  fearful  strides  throughout  the  community. 
"  Shall  we  then  go  unblushingly  and  ask  the  legislators 
of  our  country  to  pass  legislative  acts  to  sanction  and 
increase  this  trade — to  sign  the  death-warrants  of  the 
strength,  morals,  and  happiness  of  thousands  of  our  fellow 
creatures,  and  not  attempt  to  propose  corrections  for  the 
evils  which  it  creates  ?  If  such  shall  be  your  determination, 
I,  for  one,  will  not  join  in  the  application — no,  I  will  with 
all  the  faculties  I  possess  oppose  every  attempt  to  extend 
a  trade  that,  except  in  name,  is  more  injurious  to  those 
employed  in  it  than  is  the  slavery  in  the  West  Indies  to  the 
poor  negroes,  for  deeply  as  I  am  interested  in  the  cotton- 
manufacture,  highly  as  I  value  the  extended  political  power 
of  my  country,  yet  knowing  as  I  do  from  long  experience 
both  here  and  in  England  the  miseries  which  this  trade, 
as  it  is  now  conducted,  inflicts  on  those  to  whom  it  gives 
emplo3rment,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say:  Perish  the  cotton 
trade,  perish  even  the  political  superiority  of  our  country, 
if  it  depends  on  the  cotton  trade,  rather  than  that  they 

54 


AGITATION   IN   ENGLAND 

shall  he  nplield  by  the  sacrifice  of  everything  valuable  in 
lifer 

During  the  next  session  of  Parliament,  Eobert  Owen  was 
actively  urging  a  bill  stipulating  that  no  child  under  ten 
years  of  age,  or  unable  to  read,  should  be  employed  in  the 
factories,  proposing  the  establishment  of  schools  for  their 
especial  benefit  where  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic 
should  be  taught,  and  stipulating  that  the  hours  of  work 
in  mills,  including  two  hours  for  meals  and  recreation, 
should  not  exceed  twelve  and  a  half  a  day.  The  bill  also 
provided  for  more  thorough  methods  of  factory  inspection 
by  government  agents.  Xothing  more  significant  of  the 
devotion  of  Eobert  Owen  to  the  welfare  of  the  workers 
could  be  cited  than  the  fact  that  he  worked  assiduously  for 
the  passage  of  this  measure,  not  only  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  wishes  of  his  fellow  manufacturers,  but  of  most  of 
the  operatives,  who  had  been  taught  to  regard  him  as  an 
enemy  of  the  industry  which  gave  them  employment.  "  At 
this  period,^^  Mr.  Owen  writes,  "  I  had  no  public  inter- 
course with  the  operatives  and  working  classes  in  any  part 
of  the  two  islands,  not  even  in  the  great  metropolis.  They 
were  strangers  to  me  and  to  all  my  views  and  future  inten- 
tions. I  was  at  all  periods  of  my  progress,  from  my  ear- 
liest knowledge  and  emploj^ment  of  them,  their  true  friend : 
while  their  democratic  and  much  mistaken  leaders  taught 
them  that  I  desired  to  make  slaves  of  them  in  my  village 
of  unity  and  cooperation."  When  reviled  and  repudiated 
by  those  in  whose  behalf  he  labored,  Eobert  Owen  con- 
tinued fighting  their  battles  with  ardor  undaunted  by  their 
misinterpretation  of  his  motives. 

A  meeting  was  called  of  the  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons  favorable  to  factory-reform  legislation,  and  Sir 
Eobert  Peel  was  chosen  to  introduce  the  measure.  It  took 
four  years  to  secure  its  passage,  when  the  measure  came 
out  so  mutilated  that  its  provisions  brought  little  relief  to 
those  for  whose  relief  it  was  intended.    AMiile  this  bill  was 

55 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

pending,  Eobert  Owen  remained  in  London,  and  conducted 
a  campaign  of  education  such  as  England  had  never  wit- 
nessed before,  and  which  made  his  name  a  household  word 
throughout  the  kingdom.  Thousands  of  tracts  and  papers 
were  circulated.  Owen  bought  by  the  ton  copies  of  news- 
papers containing  his  arguments,  and  on  one  occasion  the 
London  mails  were  delayed  twenty  minutes  by  a  deluge  of 
documents  posted  by  him.  In  1816  appeared  Observa- 
tions on  the  Effect  of  the  Factory  System.  "  From  certain 
parliamentary  reports,"  says  Eobert  Dale  Owen,  "  in  con- 
nection with  Sir  Eobert  Peel's  factory  bill,  my  father 
derived  data  in  proof  that  the  machinery  employed  in 
Great  Britain  in  cotton-spinning  alone,  in  one  branch 
therefore  of  one  manufacture,  superseded  at  that  time  the 
labor  of  eighty  million  adults;  and  he  succeeded  in  prov- 
ing to  the  satisfaction  of  England's  ablest  statistician 
(Colquhoun)  that  if  all  the  branches  of  the  cotton,  woolen, 
flax,  and  silk  manufactures  were  included,  the  machine- 
saving  labor  in  producing  English  textile  fabrics  exceeded 
in  those  days  the  work  which  two  hundred  millions  of 
operatives  could  have  turned  out  previous  to  the  year 
1760.''  In  1817  Mr.  Owen  issued:  A  Eeport  Addressed 
to  the  Committee  for  the  Eelief  of  the  Laboring  and  Manu- 
facturing Poor.  In  this  treatise  colonies  for  the  poor 
were  advocated,  and  the  destruction  of  pauperism  by  a  sys- 
tem of  education  and  manual  training  was  proposed. 

It  may  well  be  said  that  Eobert  Owen  secured  in  the 
enactment  of  such  legislation  the  first  embodiment  of  the 
principle  of  governmental  interference  in  internal  trade 
relations,  a  principle  which  has  come  to  assume  large 
importance  in  modern  legislation.  These  early  laws 
advocated  by  Mr.  Owen  were  the  first  industrial  measures 
designed  for  the  relief  of  the  laboring  classes,  and  estab- 
lished a  precedent  for  all  labor  legislation  since  effected 
in  England  and  America. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Owen  made  a  public  declaration  of 

56 


AGITATION   IN   ENGLAND 

religious  principles,  insistent  advocacy  of  which  brought 
him,  in  the  language  of  Sargent,  "neglect,  hatred,  cal- 
umny, contempt,  and  all  the  evils  which  follow  an  excom- 
municated man."  From  this  time  his  popularity  as  a 
reformer  began  to  wane,  for  the  strong  religious  sentiment 
of  the  English  people  regarded  with  apprehension  his 
sweeping  attacks  on  existing  creeds.  This  declaration  was 
a  strategic  mistake,  but  it  revealed  the  thorough  independ- 
ence of  Eobert  Owen.  It  lost  him  the  friendship  of  his 
most  influential  allies,  brought  him  an  irresponsible  follow- 
ing which  injured  his  cause,  and  connected  his  theories  in 
the  popular  mind  with  atheism  and  anarchy. 

Soon  after  this  declaration  Mr.  Owen  visited  the  educa- 
tional establishment  of  M.  de  Felenberg,  at  Hoifwyl,  Swit- 
zerland, whither  he  had  sent  his  sons  for  their  education. 
On  this  trip  he  presented  a  memorial  in  behalf  of  the 
laboring  classes  to  the  crowned  heads  in  convention  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle.  In  1819  he  stood  for  Parliament  in  Lan- 
ark borough.  By  the  combined  efforts  of  labor  leaders 
and  factory-owners  he  was  defeated  in  his  aspirations. 
There  was  nothing  of  demagogy  in  his  Appeal  to  the  La- 
boring Classes,  issued  in  1819,  and  an  opponent  who  more 
loudly  swore  his  fealty  to  the  common  people  was  returned. 
Only  the  working  people  of  a  district  in  which  so  many 
years  of  Robert  Owen^s  life  had  been  spent  in  philanthropic 
undertakings  were  to  blame  for  the  inability  of  Mr.  Owen 
to  advocate  his  principles  at  the  succeeding  session  of  Par- 
liament. 

At  this  time  Richard  Flower  arrived  in  England,  bear- 
ing a  commission  from  George  Rapp  to  sell  the  great  Har- 
monist estate.  He  found  Robert  Owen  in  the  disappoint- 
ment of  several  of  his  plans,  and  suggested  "  Harmonic  " 
as  an  eligible  site  for  putting  in  practical  operation  plans 
for  communistic  colonization  which  Mr.  Owen  had  long 
been  publicly  advocating.  "  The  offer  tempted  my  father,'' 
writes  Robert  Dale  Owen.    "  Here  was  a  village  ready  built, 

67 


TEE  NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

a  territory  capable  of  supporting  tens  of  thousands,  in  a 
country  where  the  expression  of  thought  was  free,  and 
where  the  people  were  unsophisticated.  I  listened  with 
delight  to  Mr.  Flower's  account  of  a  frontier  life,  and  when, 
one  morning,  my  father  asked  me, '  Well,  Eobert,  what  say 
you,  New  Lanark  or  Harmony  ? '  I  answered  without  hesi- 
tation, '  Harmony.'  Aside  from  the  romance  and  novelty, 
I  think  one  prompting  motive  was  that  if  our  family  settled 
in  western  America,  it  would  facilitate  my  marriage  with 
Jessie,"  a  young  woman  who  quickly  forgot  the  younger 
Owen  after  his  emigration  to  America.  "  Mr.  Flower  could 
not  conceal  from  us  his  amazement,  saying  to  me,  I  remem- 
ber, '  Does  your  father  really  think  of  giving  up  a  position 
like  this,  with  every  comfort  and  luxury,  and  taking  his 
family  to  the  wild  life  of  the  far  West  ? '  He  did  not  know 
that  my  father's  one  ruling  desire  was  for  a  vast  theater 
in  which  to  try  his  plans  of  social  reform."  Then,  too, 
the  younger  Owen  tells  us,  "the  success  of  the  Eappites 
greatly  encouraged  my  father."  The  preliminaries  were 
arranged  with  Mr.  Flower,  and  in  December,  1824,  Mr. 
Owen  came  to  the  United  States  to  complete  the  purchase 
of  the  property  afterward  officially  known  as  New  Har- 
mony. The  bargain  was  closed  in  the  spring  of  1825,  and 
Mr.  Owen  became  the  owner  of  an  estate  consisting  of 
nearly  thirty  thousand  acres  of  land — ^three  thousand  acres 
under  cultivation  by  the  Harmonists,  nineteen  detached 
farms,  six  hundred  acres  of  improved  land  occupied  by 
tenants,  some  fine  orchards,  eighteen  acres  of  bearing  vines, 
and  the  village  of  Harmony,  with  its  great  church,  its 
brick,  frame,  and  log  houses,  and  its  factories,  with  almost 
all  the  machinery.  It  constituted  an  admirable  site  for 
the  great  experiment  which  Robert  Owen  had  decided  to 
inaugurate. 


58 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  NEW  MORAL  WORLD 

"  Civilization !  How  the  term  is  misapplied !  A  state  of  society 
based  upon  ignorance,  deranging  the  faculties  of  all ! 

"  The  affairs  of  the  world  carried  on  by  violence  and  force,  through 
massacres,  legal  robberies,  and  devastations,  superstitions,  bigotry,  and 
selfish  mysteries ! 

"  By  living  a  continual  life  of  hypocrisy,  and  public  and  private 
deception ! 

"  By  supposing  that  the  most  degrading  and  injurious  vices  are  the 
highest  virtues ! 

"And  yet  this  conduct  of  gross  ignorance  and  rank  insanity  is 
called  civilization ! " 

The  New  Moral  World^  from  which  the  sentences  just 
quoted  are  taken,  while  not  published  at  the  time  of  the 
New  Harmony  experiment,  was  a  later  compilation  of  the 
beliefs  held  and  promulgated  by  Robert  Owen  at  that  time. 
It  embodies  the  theories  upon  which  the  New  Harmony 
communities  were  founded,  and  a  brief  review  of  its  teach- 
ings will  serve  to  throw  much  light  upon  the  history  of 
the  New  Harmony  venture. 

"  The  New  Moral  World/^  Mr.  Owen  declared,  "  is  an 
organization  to  rationally  educate  and  employ  all,  through 
a  new  organization  of  society  which  will  give  a  new  exist- 
ence to  man  by  surrounding  him  with  superior  circum- 
stances only.''  "  New  and  strange  as  this  statement  will 
appear,  even  to  the  most  learned  and  experienced  of  the 
present  day,"  the  author  declares,  "  let  no  one  rashly  pro- 
nounce it  to  be  visionary,  for  it  is  a  system,  the  result  of 

59 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

much  reading,  observation,  and  reflection,  combined  with 
extensive  practical  experience  and  confidential  communi- 
cation with  public  official  characters  in  various  countries, 
and  with  leading  minds  among  all  classes:  a  system 
founded  on  the  eternal  laws  of  nature,  and  derived  from 
facts  and  experience  only:  and  it  will  be  found  on  full 
examination,  by  competent  minds,  to  be  the  least  visionary 
and  the  most  easy  of  practise  of  all  systems  which  have 
been  proposed  in  ancient  or  modern  times  to  improve  the 
character  and  to  insure  the  happiness  of  the  human  race." 

"  The  religious,  moral,  political,  and  commercial 
arrangements  of  society  have  been  on  a  wrong  basis  since 
the  commencement  of  history,"  declared  Mr.  Owen.  The 
new  society  which  would  be  possible  by  the  adoption  of  his 
principles  he  prophesied  would  be  a  heaven  of  happiness. 

As  a  basis  for  his  philosophy,  Mr.  Owen  stated  what  he 
called  "  the  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature."  In  brief, 
these  were  as  follows : 

Human  nature  is  a  compound  of  animal  propensities, 
intellectual  faculties,  and  moral  qualities. 

These  are  united  in  different  proportions  in  each  indi- 
vidual. 

The  diversity  constitutes  the  difference  between  indi- 
viduals. 

These  elements  and  proportions  are  made  by  a  power 
unknown  to  the  individual  and  consequently  without  his 
consent. 

Each  individual  comes  into  certain  existing  circum- 
stances which  act  upon  his  original  organization,  more 
especially  during  early  life,  and  by  impressing  their  gen- 
eral character  upon  him,  form  his  local  and  national 
character. 

This  influence  is  modified  by  the  original  character  of 
the  individual ;  thus  character  is  formed  and  maintained. 

No  one  decides  his  time  or  place  of  birth,  his  circum- 
stances, or  his  training. 

60 


^Si. 


THE  LIBilAfly 
OF  THE 


THE   NEW   MORAL    WORLD 

Each  individual  may  receive,  in  early  training,  either 
true  or  false  fundamental  ideas. 

He  may  be  trained  to  either  beneficial  or  injurious 
habits,  or  a  mixture  of  both. 

Each  person  must  believe  according  to  the  strongest 
conviction  that  is  made  upon  his  mind,  which  conviction 
is  not  determined  by  his  will. 

He  must  like  or  dislike,  according  to  his  experience. 

His  feelings  and  convictions  are  formed  for  him  by  the 
impression  of  circumstances  upon  his  original  organization. 
His  will  is  formed  by  his  feelings  or  convictions,  therefore 
his  physical,  mental,  and  moral  characters  are  formed 
independent  of  himself. 

Impressions  which  are  at  first  pleasurable  become  by 
repetition  indifferent,  and  finally  painful.  Impressions 
which  succeed  each  other  beyond  a  certain  rapidity  are 
finally  dissipated  and  weakened,  and  at  last  destroy  enjoy- 
ment. 

Health,  improvement,  and  happiness  depend  upon  the 
due  cultivation  of  all  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral 
qualities,  upon  their  being  called  into  action  at  a  proper 
period  of  life,  and  being  afterward  exercised  temperately, 
according  to  their  strength  and  capacity. 

Bad  character  results  from  bad  innate  tendencies 
placed  in  the  midst  of  bad  surroundings ;  a  medium  char- 
acter from  bad  tendencies  in  good  surroundings,  good  tend- 
encies in  unfavorable  surroundings,  or  mixed  tendencies 
in  mixed  surroundings.  A  superior  character  results  from 
a  good  constitution  placed  among  favorable  circumstances, 
when  the  laws,  institutions,  and  customs  are  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  nature. 

From  these  beliefs  regarding  human  nature,  Mr.  Owen 
formed  the  following  "  laws  " : 

I. — Man  can  not  be  a  subject  of  merit  or  demerit. 

II. — The  feelings  and  convictions  are  instincts  of  hu- 
man nature. 

61 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT  1 

I 

III. — The  individual  should  always  express  his  feelings  ] 

without  restraint.     The  will  is  the  mental  feeling,  and  \ 
when  we  speak  of  the  will  keeping  us  from  certain  action, 

we  simply  mean  that  our  mental  feeling  was  stronger  than  ■ 

our  physical  feeling.    Nature's  laws  require  that  physical,  ; 

mental,  and  moral  feelings  should  in  all  temperance  be  i 

exercised.  \ 

IV. — Personal  ambition  and  vanity  will  be  destroyed  ; 

by  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  of  mental  and  moral  irrespon-  ) 

sibility.  ] 

V. — The  practise  means  the  removal  from  the  world  \ 

of    all   inferior   circumstances   tending   to    produce   bad  i 
character. 

Happiness  depends  upon  the  harmony  of  physical,  men-  v 
tal,  and  moral  proportions.  The  diversity  of  mankind  is  [ 
essential  to  human  happiness.  The  individual  who  is  mor- 
ally, mentally,  or  physically  weak  calls  for  our  compassion,  j 
not  for  our  condemnation.  Good  habits  must  be  given  to  ! 
all,  or  they  can  not  be  given  to  any.  A  superior  human  ; 
being,  or  any  one  approaching  a  character  deserving  the  '' 
name  of  rational,  has  not  yet  been  known  among  mankind.  ■ 
Before  such  a  being  can  appear,  a  great  change  must  \ 
occur  in  the  whole  proceedings  of  mankind :  their  feelings,  ' 
thoughts,  and  actions  must  arise  from  principles  altogether  j 
different  from  the  vague  and  fanciful  notions  by  which  ' 
the  mental  part  of  the  character  of  man  has  been  hitherto  ! 
formed;  the  whole  external  circumstances  relative  to  the  j 
production  and  distribution,  of  wealth,  the  formation  of  | 
character,  and  the  government  of  men  must  be  changed,  i 
remodeled,  and  reunited  into  a  new  system.  The  funda-  : 
mental  errors  of  the  old  system  have  prevented  man  from  | 
becoming  rational ;  the  new  laws  will  produce  charity,  kind-  j 
ness,  intelligence,  and  happiness.  j 

The  elements  of  the  science  of  society,  Mr.  Owen  de-  j 

clared  to  be  as  follows:  I 

1.  A  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  the  application  j 

62  : 


tSe  new  moral  world 

to  practise  of  the  laws  of  human  nature ;  laws  derived  from 
demonstrable  facts,  and  which  prove  man  to  be  a  social 
being. 

2.  A  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  practise  of  the 
best  modes  of  producing  in  abundance  the  most  beneficial 
necessaries  and  comforts  for  the  support  and  enjoyment  of 
human  life. 

The  most  necessary  wealth  Mr.  Owen  declared  to  be  air, 
water,  food,  health,  clothing,  shelter,  instruction,  amuse- 
ments, the  affection  of  our  associates,  and  good  society.  To 
secure  these,  there  must  be  a  cordial  union  of  mankind. 
Upon  a  certain  amount  of  land  should  be  combined  skill, 
labor,  capital,  and  population.  These  elements  should  be 
directed  by  those  who  understand  the  laws  of  God  and 
principles  of  society.  The  greatest  loss  and  waste  result 
from  the  disunited  minds  and  feelings  of  mankind. 
Armies,  churches,  lawyers,  doctors,  and  exclusive  univer- 
sities are  the  greatest  obstacles  to  progress.  The  profes- 
sions as  such  should  be  done  away  with,  and  the  profes- 
sional men  employed  as  teachers  or  rulers  of  the  people 
under  the  new  principles.  There  is  a  great  loss  from  the 
separation  of  trades,  and  the  expense  of  exchange  and 
transportation.  Four  departments  will  be  instituted  in 
the  new  social  state:  (1)  of  production  of  wealth;  (2)  of 
distribution;  (3)  of  formation  of  character;  (4)  of  gov- 
ernment. These  elements  should  be  united  in  each  com- 
munity. Beautiful  surroundings  should  also  characterize 
each  of  these  new  settlements.  The  greatest  saving  will 
result  from  having  the  best  of  all  that  society  requires. 
These  arrangements,  with  the  destruction  of  the  profes- 
sions, will  cause  a  saving  of  from  fifty  to  sixty  per  cent. 
The  departments  of  production  will  be  made  so  attract- 
ive that  labor  will  be  a  pleasure  which  all  will  desire.  As 
a  result  of  all  these  arrangements  wealth  will  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  consumer  at  one-fourth  the  present 
cost. 

63 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

3.  A  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  practise  of  the 
best  methods  of  distributing  wealth. 

The  middleman  Mr.  Owen  declared  to  be  an  expensive 
luxury.  The  three  classes  of  these,  retailers,  wholesalers, 
and  extensive  merchants,  all  strive  to  get  the  most  out  of 
their  materials.  There  are  more  establishments  than  are 
necessary  for  handling  the  goods,  and  much  capital  and 
labor  is  thus  rendered  useless.  The  present  system  of  dis- 
tribution is  a  dead  weight  on  society.  It  is  a  contrivance 
"  to  add  to  the  cost  of  production,  to  deteriorate  qualities, 
to  employ  unnecessary  capital,  to  demoralize  the  character 
of  those  employed,  and  it  trains  men  to  become  slaves  to 
their  customers  and  tyrants  to  their  dependents.  By  keep- 
ing separate  storehouses  in  separate  establishments  on  the 
premises  where  the  material  is  produced,  and  from  these 
distributing  for  daily  consumption,  ninety-nine  per  cent  of 
this  expense  can  be  saved.  Mr.  Owen  inveighed  against 
"  imaginary  representations  of  wealth,  such  as  gold,  silver, 
or  paper,"  and  claimed  that  the  monetary  systems  of  Eng- 
land and  America  were  the  causes  of  great  distress.  He 
proposed  the  establishment  of  "  banks  of  real  wealth,"  with 
a  rather  indefinite  method  of  transacting  business.  The 
new  medium  of  exchange  must  have  the  power  of  expan- 
sion and  contraction,  as  the  value  of  material  expanded  or 
contracted. 

4.  A  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  practises  by 
which  to  form  the  new  combination  of  circumstances  for 
training  the  infant  to  become  the  most  rational  being. 
The  care  of  the  infant  has  been  entrusted  to  the  inferior 
in  mind,  manner,  and  knowledge,  and  its  education  has 
consisted  of  placing  the  child  within  four  walls,  to  sit  on  a 
seat  and  ask  no  questions.  Children  should  be  treated 
with  kindness  and  judgment. 

5.  A  knowledge  of  how  to  govern  man  most  effectively 
under  these  new  principles.  Government  must  be  active 
to  create,  watchful  and  observing  to  maintain  rationallaws. 

64 


THE   NEW   MORAL    WORLD 

6.  To  unite  these  general  principles  into  a  rational  state 
of  society.  Society  has  been  a  chaos.  The  instinct  of  man 
is  to  be  happy,  but  he  has  learned  to  think  that  wealth 
and  happiness  are  synonymous.  There  is  no  necessary  con- 
nection. Utopian  philosophers  from  Plato  to  Fourier  have 
failed  in  their  purposes  because  they  taught  contradict- 
ory principles  and  practises.  "  From  the  contamination, 
through  so  many  ages,  of  the  errors  of  theoretical  men 
without  practise,  and  those  of  practical  men  without  any 
accurate  or  extensive  knowledge  of  principle,  it  will  now  be 
difficult,  except  by  practical  demonstration,  to  convince 
these  two  classes  that  by  a  union  of  principles  derived  from 
unchanging  facts,  with  the  experience  emanating  from  ex- 
tensive practise  in  accordance  with  these  principles,  an 
intelligent,  united,  wealthy,  virtuous,  and  happy  society 
may  be  now  formed  and  made  permanent." 

Happiness,  "the  instinct  of  the  universe,"  Mr.  Owen 
declared  to  be  dependent  upon  the  practise  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  The  K'ew  Moral  World.  To  provide  for  this 
general  happiness,  schools  were  to  be  founded  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  children,  as  well  as  asylums  for  the  afflicted, 
and  to  all  should  be  given  the  opportunity  for  study,  social 
enjoyment,  travel,  and  the  liberty  of  expressing  opinions 
on  all  subjects.  Women  should  be  accorded  the  same 
rights  and  privileges  as  men, 

A  Supreme  Power,  Eobert  Owen  declared,  was  the 
cause  of  all  existence.  The  practise  of  religion  includes 
charity,  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  efforts  to 
do  good  for  our  fellow  men.  "  The  practise  of  the  rational 
religion  will  consist  in  promoting,  to  the  utmost  of  our 
power,  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  every  man,  woman, 
and  child,  without  regard  to  their  sect,  class,  party,  or  color, 
and  its  worship,  in  those  inexpressible  feelings  of  wonder, 
admiration,  and  delight,  which,  when  man  is  surrounded 
by  superior  circumstances  only,  will  naturally  arise  from 
the  contemplation  of  the  infinity  of  space,  of  the  eternity 

6  65 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

of  duration,  of  the  order  of  the  universe,  and  of  that  In- 
comprehensible Power  by  which  the  atom  is  moved  and 
the  aggregate  of  nature  is  governed."  Formerly  religions 
have  divided  man  from  man  and  nation  from  nation;  the 
new  religion  will  bind  all  men  into  one  great  family,  based 
on  charity  and  love.  All  men  should  exert  themselves  to 
remove  evil  from  society  and  create  good. 

Upon  these  beliefs  as  a  basis,  Eobert  Owen  constructed 
a  social  scheme  for  which  he  seemed  to  expect  universal 
and  immediate  acceptance.  He  declared  the  United  States 
Constitution  to  mark  the  greatest  progress  of  mankind  so 
far  made  in  the  direction  of  liberty.  He  stated,  however, 
that  Adams,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe  had  expressed 
keen  disappointment  in  the  result  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  character  of  the  American  people  as  developed  under  it. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Mr.  Owen  declared,  had  confessed  to 
him  a  feeling  that  society  should  be  reorganized,  but  had 
expressed  an  inability  to  undertake  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion. The  foundation  laid  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion was  one  of  sand,  and  would  yet  be  dissolved. 

Eational  government,  Mr.  Owen  declared,  will  attend 
solely  to  the  happiness  of  the  governed.  There  must  be 
liberty  of  conscience  and  of  speech.  Private  property 
must  be  abandoned  as  soon  as  the  children  of  the  present 
generation  had  been  taught  in  the  principles  of  the  new 
social  system.  There  should  be  no  rewards  or  punish- 
ments except  those  awarded  by  nature. 

From  one  to  five  years  of  age,  the  children  in  Mr. 
Owen^s  communities  were  to  be  well  clothed  and  fed,  and 
given  ample  opportunity  for  exercise;  the  next  five  years 
were  to  be  given  to  light  employment  and  the  continuance 
of  education,  which  was  to  be  acquired  largely  by  observa- 
tion, directed  by  skilled  teachers.  From  ten  to  twelve 
years  of  age  they  were  to  assist  in  the  gardens  and  houses, 
and  from  twelve  to  fifteen,  to  be  given  technical  training. 
From  fifteen  to  twenty  the  education  was  to  be  continued, 

66 


THE   NEW  MORAL   WORLD 

the  pupil  now  assisting  in  the  instruction  of  the  younger 
children.  From  twenty  to  thirty  the  member  was  to  act 
as  a  superintendent  in  the  departments  of  production  and 
education;  from  thirty  to  forty  to  govern  the  homes,  and 
from  forty  to  sixty,  to  assist  in  the  management  of  the 
external  relations  of  the  communities,  or  travel  abroad, 
"  as  suited  the  will." 

The  family,  Mr.  Owen  declared,  must  give  way  to  the 
scientific  association  of  from  five  hundred  to  two  thousand 
people.  In  these,  men,  women,  and  children  were  to  be 
gathered  together  "  in  usual  proportions."  The  various 
communities  were  to  be  united  in  tens,  hundreds,  thou- 
sands, etc.,  all  assisting  one  another.  Each  of  these  com- 
munities was  to  possess  adjacent  land  sujficient  to  support 
its  maximum  membership.  Provisions  for  "swarming" 
from  these  establishments,  when  they  became  crowded, 
were  to  be  made.  The  communities  were  to  be  arranged 
so  as  to  give  each  member,  so  far  as  practicable,  equal 
advantages  with  all  the  rest.  Easy  communication  from 
colony  to  colony  was  provided  for  by  pleasant  walks  through 
groves,  and  other  improved  methods  of  travel. 

Each  community  was  to  be  governed  in  all  its  home 
departments  by  a  general  council,  composed  of  all  members 
between  the  ages  of  thirty  and  forty.  Each  department 
was  to  be  placed  under  a  committee  formed  of  members 
of  the  general  council  chosen  by  the  leader  in  an  order  to 
be  determined  upon.  In  its  external,  or  foreign  relations, 
each  community  was  to  be  governed  by  its  members  between 
the  ages  of  forty  and  sixty  years.  There  was  to  be  no 
election  to  office.  All  members  must  act  as  rational  phys- 
ical and  mental  beings,  or  be  removed  to  an  asylum. 

This,  in  brief  (for  The  New  Moral  World  fills  nearly 
three  hundred  closely  printed  pages),  is  the  panacea  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Owen  for  the  cure  of  social  ills.  "  With  this 
view  of  society  in  prospect  of  easy  attainment,"  said  Mr. 
Owen,  "  shall  the  present  system,  based  on  falsehood,  be 

67 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

longer  supported;  a  system  organized,  classified,  and  ar- 
ranged in  accordance  with  the  fundamental  errors  on  which 
society  is  based — errors  producing  all  manner  of  inequality, 
vices,  crimes,  and  misery,  making  man  an  inferior  and  ir- 
rational being,  and  the  earth  a  pandemonium?  Will  the 
human  race  longer  insanely  maintain  such  a  heterogeneous 
mass  of  folly  and  absurdity,  and  doom  their  offspring, 
through  succeeding  generations,  to  be  inferior,  irrational 
men  and  women,  filled  with  every  injurious  notion,  and 
governed  by  most  ignorant  and  misery-producing  institu- 
tions, while  excellence,  superior  external  circumstances, 
and  happiness  lie  directly  before  them  and  easy  of  attain- 
ment?^' 


68 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE   FOUNDING  OF  NEW   HARMONY 

"  In  1825  Robert  Owen  stirred  the  very  life  of  the  nation  with  his 
appeals  to  Kings  and  Congresses,  and  his  vast  experiments  at  New 
Harmony,  Think  of  his  family  of  nine  hundred  members  on  a  farm 
of  thirty  thousand  acres !  A  magnificent  beginning  that  thrilled  the 
world." — Jno.  Humphrey  Notes. 

On  February  25  and  March  7,  1825,  Robert  Owen  de- 
livered addresses  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives at  Washington,  before  two  of  the  most 
distinguished  audiences  ever  gathered  in  the  national 
capital,  including  almost  the  entire  membership  of 
both  houses  of  Congress,  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  the  President  and  several  members  of  his  Cabi- 
net, besides  many  other  men  of  distinction.  To  this 
assemblage  Robert  Owen  explained  his  plans  for  the 
redemption  of  the  human  race  from  the  evils  of  the  exist- 
ing state  of  society.  In  connection  with  these  lectures,  Mr. 
Owen  exhibited  a  model  of  the  buildings  to  be  erected,  first 
for  the  New  Harmony  community,  and  afterward  for  each 
of  the  communities  to  be  established.  The  buildings  were 
to  form  a  hollow  square  one  thousand  feet  long,  including 
a  complete  school,  academy,  and  university.  Within  the 
squares  were  the  culinary,  dining,  washing,  and  similar  de- 
partments. In  the  larger  buildings  which  marked  the  cen- 
ters of  the  sides  and  the  corners  of  the  quadrangle  were 
to  be  lecture-rooms,  laboratories,  chapel,  ball,  concert, 
committee,  and  conversation  rooms.  Between  these  larger 
buildings  were  dwelling-rooms  occupying  the  first  and  sec- 

69 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

ond  stories.  On  the  third  floor  were  to  be  departments  for 
the  unmarried  and  the  children  above  two  years  of  age. 
Each  department  was  to  be  supplied  with  gas,  water,  and 
all  the  modern  conveniences. 

In  concluding  this  memorable  address,  Mr.  Owen  de- 
clared that  he  meant  to  carry  these  purposes  of  ameliora- 
tion into  immediate  execution,  to  the  full  extent  of  his 
means.  The  town  of  New  Harmony,  he  said,  did  not  pre- 
sent such  a  combination  as  his  model,  and  therefore  it 
would  present  only  a  temporary  purpose  for  the  objects 
which  he  had  in  view.  ^^  But  it  will  enable  us  to  form 
immediately,"  he  declared,  ^^  a  preliminary  society  in  which 
to  receive  the  new  population,  to  collect,  prepare,  and  ar- 
range material  for  erecting  several  such  combinations  as 
the  model  represents,  and  of  forming  several  independent, 
yet  united  associations,  having  common  property  and  one 
common  interest.  This  new  establishment  will  be  erected 
on  the  high  lands  of  Harmony,  from  two  to  four  miles 
from  the  river  and  its  island,  of  which  the  inhabitants  will 
have  a  beautiful  and  extensive  view,  there  being  several 
thousands  of  acres  of  cultivated  land  on  the  rich  second 
bottom  lying  between  the  highlands  and  the  river.  And 
here  it  is,  in  the  heart  of  the  United  States,  and  almost  in 
the  center  of  its  unequaled  internal  navigation,  that  Power 
which  governs  and  directs  the  universe  and  every  action 
of  man  has  arranged  circumstances  which  were  far  beyond 
my  control,  and  permits  me  to  commence  a  new  empire 
of  peace  and  good- will  to  men,  founded  on  other  principles 
and  leading  to  other  practises  than  those  of  present  or 
past,  and  which  principles  in  due  season,  and  in  the  allotted 
time,  will  lead  to  that  state  of  virtue,  intelligence,  enjoy- 
ment, and  happiness  which  it  has  been  foretold  by  the  sages 
of  the  past  would  at  some  time  become  the  lot  of  the 
human  race. 

"  I  have,  however,  no  wish  to  lead  the  way.  I  am  de- 
sirous that  governments  should  become  masters  of  the  sub- 

70 


7-H 


>>    .2 


^  i 


THE  LlBfiARK 


H 


r.  TUv- 


T 


jv^V 


nrnv 


THE   FOUNDING   OF  NEW  HARMONY 

ject,  adopt  the  principles,  encourage  the  practise,  and 
thereby  retain  the  direction  of  the  public  mind  for  their 
own  benefit  and  the  benefit  of  the  people.  But  as  I  have 
not  the  control  of  circumstances  to  insure  success  in  this 
public  course,  I  must  show  what  private  exertions,  guided 
by  these  new  principles,  can  accomplish  at  New  Harmony, 
and  these  new  proceedings  will  begin  in  April." 

Mr.  Owen  took  occasion  to  deny  the  report  which  al- 
leged the  unhealthfulness  of  New  Harmony.  Many  of  the 
Rappites,  he  said,  had  died  at  first,  "  but  last  year  only  two 
died."  The  land,  he  declared,  was  well  drained  and  culti- 
vated. "  I  have  been  asked,"  said  Mr.  Owen,  "  what  would 
be  the  effect  upon  the  neighborhood  and  surrounding  coun- 
try where  one  or  more  of  these  societies  of  union,  coopera- 
tion, and  common  property  should  be  established.  My  con- 
viction is  that  every  interest  and  inclination  of  the 
individual  or  old  system  of  society  would  break  up  and  soon 
terminate;  every  interest,  because  the  communities  would 
undersell  all  individual  producers,  both  of  agricultural  pro- 
ductions and  manufactured  commodities;  every  inclination, 
because  it  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  any  would  con- 
tinue to  live  under  the  miserable,  anxious,  individual  sys- 
tem of  opposition  and  counteraction,  when  they  could  with 
ease  form  themselves  into  or  become  members  of  one  of 
these  associations  of  union,  intelligence,  and  kind  feelings. 

" '  If,'  it  has  further  been  asked  of  me,  ^  these  societies 
spread  by  their  commercial  operations,  and  the  increased 
advantages  and  comforts  which  they  offer,  to  the  whole 
population,  what  effect  will  they  have  upon  the  govern- 
ment and  general  prosperity  of  an  extensive  empire?'  I 
again  reply  that  a  country,  however  extensive,  divided  into 
these  arrangements  of  improved  social  buildings,  gardens, 
and  pleasure-grounds,  and  these  occupied  and  cultivated 
by  people  possessing  superior  dispositions,  will  be  governed 
with  more  ease  than  it  can  be  with  the  same  number  of 
people  scattered  over  the  country,  living  in  common  vil- 

71 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

lages,  towns,  and  cities  under  the  individual  system.  The 
expense  of  government  will  be  diminished  by  as  much  as 
the  trouble  and  anxiety,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  these 
would  be  diminished  to  one-tenth  of  the  present  amount. 
The  effect  which  would  be  produced  on  the  prosperity  of 
the  country  would  be  equally  beneficial  and  important* 
Any  country  will  be  prosperous  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber and  physical  and  mental  superiority  of  its  people." 

With  the  publication  of  these  addresses  in  1825  wa9 
issued  a  manifesto  announcing  that  "  a  new  society  is  about 
to  be  formed  at  Harmony  in  Indiana."  The  invitation 
to  membership  included  all  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the 
founder  in  his  desire  for  a  new  state  of  society. 

The  second  community  at  Harmony  was  instituted 
under  the  most  auspicious  circumstances.  The  attention 
of  the  whole  country  had  been  drawn  to  the  project  by  the 
addresses  of  Mr.  Owen  at  Washington  and  in  other  Ameri- 
can cities.  Many  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the 
time,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  were  giving  at  least 
partial  approval  to  the  plans  of  the  celebrated  English 
philanthropist.  The  previous  success  of  the  Rappites  on 
the  very  site  of  the  proposed  Utopia  furnished  an  object- 
lesson  in  communistic  prosperity.  There  appeared  to  be 
no  reason  why  a  measure  of  success  even  greater  should 
not  come  to  the  new  community,  which  seemed  to  be  based 
on  all  the  good  in  Harmonist  doctrine,  with  the  more  dis- 
agreeable features  eliminated,  while  it  contemplated  the 
practise  of  theories  in  local  government  and  education 
which  had  proved  highly  successful  at  New  Lanark.  The 
grade  of  intelligence  in  the  Harmonist  society  had  been 
low,  and  ignorance  and  superstition  had  been  the  most 
marked  characteristics  of  the  membership.  The  members 
of  the  new  community  would  be  persons  of  liberal  and 
progressive  ideas,  striving  toward  a  high  ideal  of  social  life, 
with  superior  intelligence  and  skill.  Mr.  Owen  had  de- 
monstrated his  business  ability  as  one  of  the  leading  cotton 

72 


TEE   FOUNDING    OF   NEW   HARMONY 

manufacturers  of  England,  and  was  prepared  to  give  sub- 
stantial backing  to  his  experiment.  The  hundreds  who 
flocked  to  New  Harmony  from  every  State  in  the  Union, 
and  from  every  country  in  the  north  of  Europe,  found  as 
the  site  of  the  new  settlement  a  princely  estate  comprising 
several  square  miles  of  fertile  land.  The  extensive  indus- 
tries established  by  the  Eappites  seemed  to  await  only  the 
touch  of  American  ingenuity,  while  the  comfortable  homes 
the  German  communists  had  built  in  "  Harmonic,  the  home 
of  love,"  insured  the  absence  of  the  privation  of  early  set- 
tlement which  discouraged  many  similar  communities  in 
later  years.  The  orchards  which  stood  at  the  edge  of  the 
village,  and  the  vineyards  that  covered  the  hillsides,  were 
visible  promises  of  plenty  during  the  early  spring  days  of 
the  settlement.  The  quietly  retreating  Eappite  thousand, 
too,  it  was  said,  had  conveyed  their  golden  hoard  by  bushels 
from  Father  Eapp^s  cellar  to  the  boat  which  bore  them  to 
their  new  Pennsylvania  home.  Surely,  this  was  the  El 
Dorado  of  communistic  hopes;  surely,  as  Eobert  Owen  had 
declared,  this  was  a  place  providentially  set  apart  for  the 
first  great  victory  of  communism. 

It  was  not  the  hope  of  even  optimistic  Robert  Owen 
that  a  community  of  equality,  based  on  lofty  and  liberal 
principles,  could  spring  full  grown  into  being,  as  had  the 
Eappite  society  of  religious  asceticism  in  1805.  There 
must  be  some  years  of  educational  training,  of  instruction 
in  the  principles  of  the  new  moral  world;  the  members 
must  be  gradually  weaned  away  from  "the  errors  and 
prejudices  which  had  existed  since  the  time  of  Adam  " — 
from  all  the  evil  ideas  and  associations  of  the  selfish  in- 
dividual system  in  which  they  had  been  born  and  reared, 
before  they  could,  with  safety,  form  themselves  into  a  com- 
munity such  as  Eobert  Owen  contemplated.  To  this  end, 
Mr.  Owen  enlisted  the  interest  of  William  Maclure,  of 
Philadelphia,  a  wealthy  scientist  who  combined  excellent 
ideas  on  education  with  peculiar  notions  in  political  econ- 

73 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  31 07 EM E NT 

omy,  which,  while  they  did  not  coincide  with  Eobert 
Owen^s  methods  of  social  reconstruction,  agreed  in  the  in- 
dictment of  existing  conditions.  William  Maclure  was  in 
many  respects  a  remarkable  man,  of  varied  experience, 
broad  views,  and  a  spirit  truly  philanthropic.  In  awaken- 
ing his  interest  in  New  Harmony,  Mr.  Owen  certainly  pro- 
cured a  promise  of  educational  excellence  for  his  social 
experiment.  Maclure  was  born  in  Ayre,  Scotland,  in 
1763.  When  thirty-three  years  of  age,  he  came  to  America 
with  the  ambitious  intention  of  making  a  geological  survey 
of  the  United  States.  This  purpose  he  followed  with  in- 
defatigable energy  until  the  publication  of  the  results  of 
his  labors  in  1809.  In  the  course  of  this  work  he  crossed 
and  recrossed  the  Alleghanies  more  than  fifty  times,  and 
tramped  on  foot  through  every  State  and  Territory  then 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  in  the  search  for 
data.  In  1817  he  published  a  revised  edition,  incorpo- 
rating the  results  of  further  observation.  He  became  justly 
known,  through  this  herculean  pioneer  work,  as  '^The 
Father  of  American  Geology."        ^ 

Mr.  Maclure  was  the  principal  founder  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and  for  twenty-three 
years,  beginning  with  1817,  he  was  the  president  of  that 
organization.  To  this  institution  he  contributed  liberally, 
transferring  to  it  in  later  years  his  library  and  collections. 
He  was  the  patron  of  many  American  scientific  organiza- 
tions, including  the  American  Geological  Society,  of  which 
he  was  president. 
/  Maclure's  interest  in  education  was  second  only  to  his 
scientific  enthusiasm.  He  visited  Pestalozzi's  school  in 
Switzerland,  and  was  the  first  to  introduce  the  system  of 
the  great  Swiss  educator  into  the  United  States.  He  was 
one  of  the  earliest  champions  of  the  idea  of  industrial 
education.  He  founded  an  agricultural  school  near  the 
city  of  Alicante,  Spain,  on  an  estate  of  ten  thousand  acres, 
purchased  for  this  purpose,  but  an  end  was  put  to  these 

H 


THE  FOUNDING   OF  NEW  HARMONY 

plans  by  a  political  revolution  which  resulted  in  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  property.  Maclure's  friendship  for  Eobert 
Owen  began  with  a  visit  to  New  Lanark,  where  he  was 
greatly  attracted  by  the  plans  there  in  operation  for  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  working  classes. 

Mr.  Maclure,  according  to  Mr.  Owen^s  subsequent  state- 
ment, put  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars 
into  the  New  Harmony  experiment,  his  liability,  however, 
being  limited  to  ten  thousand  dollars.  The  avowed  inten- 
tion of  Mr.  Maclure  was  to  make  New  Harmony  the  center 
of  American  education  through  the  introduction  of  the 
Pestalozzian  system  of  instruction,  in  which  he  and  Mr. 
Owen  had  a  common  interest.  To  this  end,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Mr.  Owen,  he  brought  to  New  Harmony  the  most 
distinguished  coterie  of  scientists  and  educators  in  Amer- 
ica. Among  these  was  Thomas  Say,  who  has  been  called 
"  The  Father  of  American  Zoology."  Thomas  Say,  the 
son  of  a  medical  practitioner  in  Philadelphia,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  of  Friends,  was  born  in  Philadelphia 
on  July  27,  1787.  He  was  destined  by  his  father  to  a  busi- 
ness life,  but  failed  so  signally  that  he  was  soon  without 
means.  He  then  became  a  scientist,  having  from  early 
life  displayed  a  strong  predilection  for  the  study  of  natural 
history.  He  served  through  the  War  of  1812  as  a  volun- 
teer, afterward  resuming  his  scientific  studies.  Mr.  Say 
was  a  charter  member  of  the  association  which  founded  the 
Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  Under  the 
auspices  of  this  organization  he  began  the  work  of  cata- 
loguing and  describing  the  American  fauna,  contributing 
from  time  to  time  the  results  of  his  labors  to  the  journal 
published  by  the  association.  In  1817  he  was,  with  Will- 
iam Maclure,  a  member  of  a  party  engaged  in  investiga- 
ting the  natural  history  of  the  Florida  peninsula,  and  in 
1818  explored  the  islands  off  the  coast  of  Georgia.  He 
became  chief  zoologist  with  Long's  expedition  to  the  Kocky 
Mountains  in  1819,  and  in  1823  accompanied  this  party 

.75 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

to  the  St.  Peter's  Eiver.  After  coming  to  New  Harmony, 
he  devoted  his  time  unremittingly  to  the  study  and  teach- 
ing of  natural  history.  He  contributed  many  scientific 
articles  to  the  New  Harmony  Disseminator,  and  contribu- 
tions from  his  pen  are  to  be  found  in  the  Journal  of  the 
Philadelphia  Academy  of  Sciences,  Transactions  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  Maclurean  Lyceum, 
Nicholson's  Encyclopedia,  American  Journal  of  Science 
and  Art,  and  the  Western  Quarterly  Reporter.  His  scien- 
tific papers  in  all  number  about  one  hundred.  He  edited 
and  arranged  almost  all  of  the  publications  of  Prince 
Charles  Lucien  Bonaparte  written  while  in  America. 
While  at  New  Harmony  his  American  Entomology,  pro- 
jected in  1816,  was  completed  in  three  parts.  His  Ameri- 
can Conchology  had  been  carried  through  six  volumes 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  Copies  of  these  works  are  to  be 
found  in  the  New  Harmony  library.  They  are  orna- 
mented by  beautiful  colored  plates,  drawn  and  painted 
by  Mrs.  Say,  whom,  as  Miss  Lucy  Sistare,  Mr.  Say  mar- 
ried at  New  Harmony.  The  exquisite  engravings,  many 
of  them  made  at  New  Harmony,  were  by  C.  H.  Lesueur,  L. 
Lyon,  and  James  Walker.  The  American  Conchology  was 
printed  at  New  Harmony.  "  He  was  one  of  the  truest  and 
noblest  students  of  natural  science,"  writes  Dr.  Schnack. 
^^  He  was  noted  for  his  modesty  and  reticence — only  his 
intimate  friends  were  aware  of  his  true  worth.  He  has 
left  his  impression  on  every  department  of  natural  science 
that  he  touched;  and  his  fellow  workers  after  him  have 
given  his  name  to  one  or  more  species  in  every  branch  of 
natural  history.  Thus  he  will  forever  remain  immortal- 
ized through  the  objects  he  so  much  loved  and  studied." 
J.  S.  Kingsley  says  of  Thomas  Say,  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly :  "  The  number  of  new  species  which  Say  described 
has  probably  never  been  exceeded  except  in  the  case  of 
those  two  exceedingly  careless  workers,  John  Edward  Gray 
and  Francis  Walker,  of  the  British  Museum.    There  is  this 

76 


THE   FOUNDING    OF   NEW   HARMONY 

in  Say's  favor  which  can  not  be  said  of  the  two  just  men- 
tioned :  that  his  descriptions  are  almost  without  exception 
easily  recognized,  and  almost  every  form  which  he  de- 
scribed is  now  well  known.  Working  as  he  did  almost 
without  books,  and  without  that  traditional  knowledge 
which  obtains  among  the  continental  workers,  it  was  un- 
avoidable that  he  should  redescribe  forms  which  were 
known  before,  but  owing  to  the  clear  insight  he  possessed, 
and  the  discrimination  he  exercised  in  selecting  the  im- 
portant features  of  the  form  before  him,  his  work  has 
never  caused  that  confusion  which  many,  in  much  more 
favorable  circumstances,  have  produced/' 

Charles  Alexander  Lesueur  came  from  the  West  Indies 
to  New  Harmony.  "He  had  been  engaged,"  writes  Dr. 
Schnack,  "  by  the  Jardins  des  Plantes,  at  Paris,  to  make 
a  collection  of  the  various  objects  of  natural  history;  he 
was  attached  to  the  unfortunate  expedition  of  La  Perouse 
and  was  left  on  the  coast  of  Australia  to  examine  and 
describe  the  remarkable  animals  of  that  continent,  other- 
wise he  would  have  been  lost,  as  all  the  rest  were,  by  ship- 
wreck. He  was  the  first  to  explore,  and  publish  an  account 
of  the  mounds  found  in  Indiana."  Lesueur  was  also  the 
first  to  classify  the  fishes  of  the  Great  Lakes.  He  was  an 
adept  painter,  and  sketches  from  his  pencil  are  to  be  found 
in  the  New  Harmony  library. 

Constantino  Samuel  Raffinesque  was  a  frequent  visitor 
to  New  Harmony  during  community  days,  and  associated 
himself  as  closely  with  the  experiment  there  as  his  nomadic 
nature  would  permit.  Dr.  Jordan  calls  Raffinesque  "  the 
first  student  of  our  western  fishes,"  and  "the  very  first 
teacher  of  natural  history  in  the  West,"  and  devotes  to 
him  an  interesting  chapter  in  his  Science  Sketches.  Raffi- 
nesque was  born  in  Constantinople  in  1784,  and  in  him  were 
blended  French,  Turkish,  German,  and  Grecian  blood.  His 
early  boyhood  was  spent  at  Marseilles,  where,  he  says  in 
his  Autobiography,  he  became  a  zoologist  and  a  naturalist. 

n 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

At  the  age  of  twelve  he  published  his  first  scientific  paper. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Eevolution  he  was  sent,  with 
a  brother,  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  became  a  merchant's 
clerk,  and  devoted  his  spare  time  to  the  study  of  botany, 
traveling  on  foot,  in  pursuit  of  his  studies,  over  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania.  In  1805  he  went  to  Sicily,  where  he 
spent  ten  years.  There  he  discovered  the  medicinal  squill, 
which  was  the  beginning  of  a  profitable  business  for  the 
natives  of  the  island.  In  1810  he  published  two  works  on 
the  fishes  of  Sicily.  In  1815  he  again  sailed  for  America. 
Off  the  harbor  of  New  London  the  vessel  upon  which  he 
was  a  passenger  went  down,  carrying  with  it  Eaffinesque's 
books  and  scienl^ific  collections.  Kaffinesque  drifted  west- 
ward, making  pioneer  explorations  of  the  botany  of  the 
Ohio  Eiver  country.  After  a  short  time  spent  at  New  Har- 
mony, he  became  professor  of  natural  history  and  modern 
languages  in  Transylvania  University,  at  Lexington,  Ken- 
tucky. After  a  stormy  experience  there,  he  closed  his 
career  as  a  college  professor,  for  which  he  was  ill  fitted. 
During  the  course  of  his  travels  he  visited  Audubon,  then 
keeping  a  small  store  and  studying  birds  at  Henderson, 
Kentucky.  Audubon  gives  an  entertaining  description  of 
his  queer  guest.  "  His  attire,'^  writes  Audubon,  "  struck 
me  as  extremely  remarkable.  A  long,  loose  coat  of  yellow 
nankeen,  much  the  worse  for  the  many  rubs  it  had  got  in 
its  time,  hung  about  him  loosely,  like  a  sack.  A  waistcoat 
of  the  same,  with  enormous  pockets  and  buttoned  up  to  the 
chin,  reached  below,  over  a  pair  of  tight  pantaloons,  the 
lower  part  of  which  was  buttoned  down  over  his  ankles. 
His  beard  was  long,  and  his  long  black  hair  hung  loosely 
over  his  shoulders.  His  forehead  was  broad  and  prom- 
inent, indicating  a  mind  of  strong  power.  His  words  im- 
pressed an  assurance  of  rigid  truth;  and,  as  he  directed 
the  conversation  to  the  natural  sciences,  I  listened  to  him 
with  great  delight."  Eeturning  to  Philadelphia,  Eaffi- 
nesque  began  the  publication  of  The  Atlantic  Journal  and 

78 


THE   FOUNDING   OF  NEW  HARMONY 

Friend  of  Knowledge,  Annals  of  Nature,  and  other  period- 
icals, of  which,  as  Dr.  Jordan  remarks,  he  was  not  only 
editor,  publisher,  and  usually  sole  contributor,  but  finally 
sole  subscriber  also.  Says  Dr.  Jordan:  "He  became  a 
monomaniac  on  the  subject  of  new  species.  He  was  uncon- 
trolled in  this  matter  by  the  influence  of  other  writers, 
that  incredulous  conservatism  as  to  another's  discoveries 
which  furnishes  a  salutary  balance  to  enthusiastic  workers. 
Before  his  death  so  much  had  he  seen,  and  so  little  had  he 
compared,  that  he  had  described  certainly  twice  as  many 
fishes,  and  probably  nearly  twice  as  many  plants  and  shells, 
as  really  existed  in  the  regions  over  which  he  traveled. 
'..  .  .  Thus  it  came  about  that  the  name  and  work  of 
Raffinesque  fell  into  utter  neglect.  .  .  .  Long  before 
the  invention  of  railroads  and  steamboats,  he  had  traveled 
over  most  of  southern  Europe  and  eastern  North  America. 
Without  money  except  as  he  earned  it,  he  had  gathered 
shells  and  plants  and  fishes  on  every  shore  from  the  Helles- 
pont to  the  Wabash.''  Eaffinesque  died  in  abject  pov- 
erty in  Philadelphia  in  1840,  entirely  without  the  repu- 
tation as  a  scientist  which  attaches  to  his  name  now  that 
zoologists  realize  the  value  of  his  pioneer  work. 

Dr.  Gerard  Troost,  a  Holland  geologist,  was  also  one 
of  the  group  of  scientists  brought  to  New  Harmony  by 
Mr.  Maclure.  Troost  was  a  pioneer  in  the  study  of  west- 
ern geology,  and  became  a  professor  in  the  Nashville 
University  and  State  geologist  of  Tennessee  after  leaving 
New  Harmony.  John  Chappelsmith,  who  accompanied 
Mr.  Owen  to  New  Harmony,  was  a  wealthy  English  artist 
and  engraver.  Prof.  Joseph  Neef,  who  came  to  take 
charge  of  the  educational  features  of  the  New  Harmony 
experiment,  had  come  from  Pestalozzi's  reform  school  at 
Iverdun,  at  the  solicitation  of  Mr.  Maclure,  to  introduce 
the  Pestalozzian  system  of  education  into  this  country. 
Madame  Marie  D.  Frotageot  and  Phiquepal  d'Arusmont, 
also  Pestalozzian  teachers,  came  with  Mr.  Maclure's  party 

79 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

from  Philadelphia,  in  which  city  they  had  been  conducting 
private  schools.  Professor  Neef  had  conducted  two  acade- 
mies on  the  Pestalozzian  system  with  indifferent  success, 
near  Philadelphia.  Frances  Wright,  who  became  the  wife 
of  Phiquepal  d'Arusmont,  was  at  New  Harmony  during 
the  Rappite  removal,  and  accompanied  the  Harmonists  to 
their  new  home  in  Pennsylvania,  for  the  purpose  of  obser- 
vation. She  was  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  the  "  new 
principles,"  the  first  American  advocate  of  women^s  rights, 
and  one  of  the  earliest  among  abolition  agitators.  The 
four  sons  of  Eobert  Owen,  Robert  Dale,  William,  David, 
and  Richard,  were  strong  factors  in  the  educational 
life  of  New  Harmony.  All  had  received  their  early 
educational  training  under  private  tutors,  later  enter- 
ing the  manual  training  and  grammar  schools  founded 
at  New  Lanark  by  their  father.  All  attended  the  educa- 
tional institution  of  Emmanuel  Fellenburg  at  Hoffwyl, 
Switzerland,  David  and  Richard  pursuing  a  special  course 
in  chemistry,  and,  with  Robert,  acquiring  a  knowledge  of 
French  and  German.  David  and  Richard  entered  the 
chemical  and  physical  classes  of  Dr.  Andrew  lire,  in  the 
Andersonian  Institution  at  Glasgow,  and  in  November, 
1827,  left  Liverpool  to  join  their  father  at  New  Harmony, 
where  they  engaged  in  teaching  and  conducting  chemical 
experiments  with  apparatus  brought  from  Glasgow. 

Robert  Dale  Owen  was,  in  his  earlier  years,  an  enthusi- 
astic believer  in  the  social  theories  of  his  father,  and 
thought  with  him  that  three  or  four  hours'  work  a  day, 
under  a  system  of  common  property,  would  support  a  man. 
In  September,  1825,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  he  left 
Liverpool  for  New  York.  He  landed  at  New  York  harbor 
in  November,  and  set  foot  on  what  he  called  "  the  Canaan 
of  his  hopes."  He  was  accompanied  by  a  Captain  McDon- 
ald, a  young  English  officer  who  was  an  enthusiastic  Owen- 
ite.  They  remained  at  New  York  for  several  weeks,  and 
were  joined  there  by  the  Maclure  party  of  scientists  and 

80 


THE   FOUNDING   OF  NEW  HARMONY 

educators,  including,  besides  those  mentioned  above,  "  sev- 
eral cultivated  ladies,  among  them.  Miss  Sistare,  afterward 
the  wife  of  Thomas  Say,  and  her  sisters."  Kobert  Dale 
Owen  is  not  sure  whether  William  Maclure  joined  them  at 
New  York,  or  whether  he  arrived  at  New  Harmony  shortly 
after  they  reached  the  place.  While  in  New  York,  Eobert 
Dale  Owen  declared  his  intention  to  become  an  American 
citizen.  The  trip  to  New  Harmony  from  Pittsburg  was  by 
a  keel  boat,  which  has  ever  since  been  known  as  "  The  Boat- 
load of  Knowledge."  The  party  reached  New  Harmony 
in  the  middle  of  January,  1826,  eight  months  after  Eobert 
Owen  had  formally  launched  his  experiment. 


81 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   PRELIMINARY   SOCIETY 

"  Land  of  the  West,  we  come  to  thee, 
Far  o'er  the  desert  of  the  sea ; 
Under  thy  white-winged  canopy, 
Land  of  the  West,  we  fly  to  thee ; 
Sick  of  the  Old  World's  sophistry ; 
Haste  then  across  the  dark,  blue  sea, 
Land  of  the  West,  we  rush  to  thee  ! 
Home  of  the  brave  :  soil  of  the  free, — 
Huzza!  She  rises  o'er  the  sea." 

— Sung  hy  the    Owen   paHy   on    shipboard^    en    route    to    New 
Harmony. 

During  the  spring  of  1825,  the  New  Harmony  experi- 
ment was  a  subject  of  general  discussion  all  over  the  coun- 
try. The  National  Intelligencer  quoted  the  Philadelphia 
papers  as  saying  that  "  nine  hundred  inhabitants  of  that 
city  have  expressed  a  desire  to  accompany  Mr.  Owen  to 
New  Harmony/'  although  Owen  was  generally  decried  by 
the  press  as  "  an  unbeliever."  New  Harmony  became  the 
rendezvous  of  enlightened  and  progressive  people  from  all 
over  the  United  States  and  northern  Europe.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  came  to  New  Harmony  scores  of  cranks  with 
curious  hobbies,  many  persons  impelled  by  curiosity  and 
many  others  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  life  without  labor. 
The  heterogeneous  mass  would  have  afforded  Charles  Dick- 
ens an  unlimited  supply  of  character  studies,  for  eccen- 
tricity ran  riot  in  a  hundred  directions.  The  large  ma- 
jority were  freethinkers,  attracted  by  Robert  Owen's 
unorthodox  religious  views.  New  Harmony  was  denom- 
inated by  Alexander  Campbell,  "  the  focus  of  enlightened 

82 


CHAELES  ALEXANDRE  LESUEUR. 


% 


•^ 


% 


THE   PRELIMINARY   SOCIETY 

atheism."  This  fact  accounted,  in  no  small  degree,  for  the 
exodus  of  scientific  men  to  the  place  at  a  time  when  there 
was  thought  to  be  irreconcilable  disagreement  between  sci- 
ence and  religion.  Macdonald  says  that  Owen's  proclama- 
tion was  more  successful  than  he  had  expected,  and  that  he 
was  deprived  of  an  opportunity  to  select  the  members  of 
his  community  by  finding  the  place  filled  to  overflowing 
on  his  arrival. 

On  April  27,  1825,  Eobert  Owen  addressed  the  com- 
munity membership,  together  with  many  others  who  had 
gathered  from  the  surrounding  country  to  witness  the 
launching  of  this  strange  experiment.  The  meeting  was 
held  in  the  old  Rappite  church,  which  had  been  converted 
into  the  "  Hall  of  New  Harmony,"  and  dedicated  to  free 
thought  and  free  speech.  Amid  surroundings  so  favorable 
to  the  success  of  his  project,  Mr.  Owen  could  not  be  blamed 
for  speaking  optimistically.  ^'  I  am  come  to  this  country," 
he  said,  "  to  introduce  an  entire  new  state  of  society;  to 
change  it  from  an  igijorant,  selfish  system  to  an  enlight- 
ened social  system  which  shall  gradually  unite  all  interests 
into  one,  and  remove  all  causes  for  contest  between  indi- 
viduals." Reiterating  his  declaration  that  happiness,  vir- 
tue, and  the  rational  being  can  not  be  attained  under  the 
individual  system,  he  said  that  former  attempts  at  social 
regeneration  had  not  been  made  with  an  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature,  but  were  based  on  an  unnatural  and 
artificial  view  of  our  own  nature.  Man  claims  not  our 
praise  and  blame,  but  our  compassion,  care,  attention,  and 
kindness.  The  change  in  system,  however,  Mr.  Owen  de- 
clared, could  not  be  accomplished  at  once.  New  Harmony 
is  "the  half-way  house  between  the  old  and  the  new." 
The  people  must  for  a  time  admit  a  certain  degree  of  pecu- 
niary inequality,  partly,  Mr.  Owen  explained,  because  scien- 
tists and  educators  would  be  brought  to  the  settlement 
under  inducements.  But  there  would  be  no  social  ine- 
qualities.    He  would  consider  himself  no  better  than  the 

83 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

humblest  member.  The  only  distinction  in  the  deference 
accorded  individuals  should  be  that  commanded  by  age  and 
experience.  While  his  desire  was  that  the  community 
should  be  self-governing,  it>would  be  necessary  for  him  to 
take  the  direction  of  affairs  for  a  time.  "  Ardently  as  I 
long  for  the  arrival  of  that  period  when  there  shall  be  no 
artificial  inequality  among  the  whole  human  race,  yet,  as  no 
other  individual  has  had  the  same  experience  as  myself  in 
the  practise  of  the  system  about  to  be  introduced,  I  must, 
for  some  time,  partially  take  the  lead  in  its  direction,  but  I 
shall  rejoice  when  I  can  be  relieved  from  this  task  by  the 
population  of  this  place  becoming  such  proficients  in  the 
principles  and  practises  of  the  social  system,  as  to  be  en- 
abled to  carry  it  on  successfully  without  my  aid  and  assist- 
ance." .  "  I  now  live,"  said  Mr.  Owen  in  closing,  "  but  to 
see  this  system  established  in  the  world." 

This  first  address  of  Robert  Owen  at  New  Harmony  was 
received  with  enthusiasm.  The  strong  personality  of  Mr. 
Owen  impressed  itself  vividly  upon  the  inhabitants.  "  He 
is  an  extraordinary  man,"  wrote  W.  Pelham  to  his  son,  W. 
C.  Pelham,  "  a  wonderful  man — such  a  one,  indeed,  as  the 
world  has  never  before  seen.  His  wisdom,  his  comprehen- 
sive mind,  his  practical  knowledge,  but  above  all,  his  open- 
ness, candor,  and  sincerity,  have  no  parallel  in  ancient  or 
modern  history." 

On  May  1, 1825,  the  "  Preliminary  Society  of  New  Har- 
mony "  was  formed  and  the  constitution  proposed  by  Rob- 
ert Owen  on  April  27th  was  adopted.  This  constitution 
is  so  complete  an  exposition  of  the  purposes  of  the  Owen- 
ite  communists,  and  so  fully  sets  forth  the  scheme  of  gov- 
ernment devised  for  "  the  half-way  house  between  the  old 
system  and  the  new,"  that  it  is  worth  reproducing  in  its 
entirety.  The  constitution  is  preceded  by  the  statement: 
"  The  society  is  instituted  generally  to  promote  the  hap- 
piness of  the  world,"  and  continues  as  follows: 

84 


THE   PRELIMINARY   SOCIETY 

"  This  Preliminary  Society  is  particularly  formed  to  im- 
prove the  character  and  conditions  of  its  own  members, 
and  to  prepare  them  to  become  associates  in  independent 
communities,  'having  common  propertylj 

"  The  sole  objects  of  these  communities  will  be  to  pro- 
cure for  all  their  members  the  greatest  amount  of  happi- 
ness, to  secure  it  to  them,  and  to  transmit  it  to  their  chil- 
dren to  the  latest  posterity. 

"Persons  of  all  ages  and  descriptions,  exclusive  of  per- 
sons of  color,  may  become  members  of  the  Preliminary 
Society.  ( Persons  of  color  may  be  received  as  helpers  to  the 
society,  if  necessary;  or  it  may  be  found  useful  to  prepare 
and  enable  them  to  become  associates  in  communities  in 
Africa,  or  in  some  other  country,  or  in  some  other  part  of 
this  country. 

^\The  members  of  the  Preliminary  Society  are  all  of  the 
same  rank,  no  artificial  inequality  being  acknowledged; 
precedence  to  be  given  only  to  age  and  experience, 
and  to  those  who  may  be  chosen  to  offices  of  trust  and 
utility. 

"  As  the  proprietor  of  the  settlement,  and  founder  of 
the  system,  has  purchased  the  property,  paid  for  it,  and 
furnished  the  capital,  and  has  consequently  subjected 
himself  to  all  the  risk  of  the  establishment,  it  is  nec- 
essary for  the  formation  of  the  system,  and  for  its  se- 
curity, that  he  should  have  the  appointment  of  the 
committee  which  is  to  direct  and  manage  the  affairs  of 
the  society. 

"This  committee  will  conduct  all  the  affairs  of  the 
society.  It  will  be,  as  much  as  possible,  (^omposed  of  men 
of  experience  and  integrity,  who  are  competent  to  carry 
the  system  into  effect^  and  to  apply  impartial  justice  to  all 
the  members  of  the  society. 

"  The  number  of  the  committee  will  be  augmented  from 
time  to  time,  according  as  the  proprietor  may  secure  the 
assistance  of  other  valuable  members. 

85 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

T  At  the  termination  of  one  year  from  the  establishment 
of  the  settlement,  which  shall  be  dated  from  the  first  day 
of  May,  the  members  of  the  society  shall  elect,  by  ballot, 
from  among  themselves,  three  additional  members  of  the 
committee.  Their  election  is  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
to  all  the  members  a  full  knowledge  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  committee,  and  of  the  business  of  the  society;  but  it 
is  delayed  for  one  year,  in  order  to  afford  time  for  the 
formation  of  the  society,  and  to  enable  the  members  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  characters  and  abilities  of 
those  who  are  proper  to  be  elected. 

"  It  is  expected  that  at  the  termination  of  the  second 
year,  or  between  that  period  and  the  end  of  the  third  year, 
an  association  of  members  may  be  formed  to  constitute  a 
community  of  equality  and  independence  to  be  governed 
according  to  the  rules  and  regulations  contained  in  the 
printed  paper  entitled  Mr.  Owen's  Plan  for  the  Per- 
manent Eelief  of  the  Working  Classes,  with  such  altera- 
tions as  experience  may  suggest  and  the  localities  of  the 
situation  may  require. 

"  The  independent  community  will  be  established  upon 
property  purchased  by  the  associated  members. 

'^  The  Preliminary  Society  will  continue  to  receive 
members  preparatory  to  their  removal  into  other  inde- 
pendent communities.  ' 

"  Every  individual,  previous  to  admission  as  a  member, 
must  sign  the  constitution,  which  signature  shall  be  regu- 
larly witnessed.  The  members  must  join  the  society  at 
their  own  expense. 

"  The  society  shall  not  be  answerable  for  the  debts  of 
any  of  its  members,  (iior  in  any  manner  for  their  conduct, 
no  partnership  whatsoever  existing  between  the  members 
of  the  Preliminary  Society. 

"  The  members  shall  occupy  the  dwellings  which  the 
committee  may  provide  for  them. 

The  live  stock  possessed  by  members  will  be  taken 

86 


(( 


TEE   PRELIMINARY   SOCIETY 

and  placed  to  their  credit,  if  wanted  for  the  society,  but  if 
not  required,  it  shall  not  be  received. 

"  All  members  must  provide  their  own  household  and 
kitchen  furniture,  and  their  small  tools,  such  as  spades, 
hoes,  axes,  rakes,  etc.,  and  they  may  bring  such  provisions 
as  they  have  already  provided. 

"All  the  members  shall  willingly  render  their  best 
services  for  the  good  of  the  society,  according  to  their  age, 
experience,  and  capacity,  and  if  inexperienced  in  that 
which  is  requisite  for  its  welfare,  they  shall  apply  them- 
selves diligently  to  acquire  the  knowledge  of  some  useful 
occupation  or  employment. 

"  They  shall  enter  the  society  with  a  determination  to 
promote  its  peace,  prosperity,  and  harmony,  and  never, 
under  any  provocation  whatever,  act  unkindly  or  unjustly 
toward,  nor  speak  in  an  unfriendly  manner  of,  any  one 
either  in  or  out  of  the  society. 

"  Members  shall  be  temperate,  regular,  and  orderly  in 
their  whole  conduct,  and  they  shall  be  dihgent  in  their 
employments,  in  proportion  to  their  age,  capacity,  and  con- 
stitution. 

"  They  shall  show  a  good  example,  it  being  a  much  bet- 
ter instructor  than  precept. 

"  They  shall  watch  over,  and  endeavor  to  protect,  the 
whole  property  from  every  kind  of  injury. 

"  The  members  shall  receive  such  advantages,  living, 
comfort,  and  education  for  their  children  as  this  society  and 
the  present  state  of  New  Harmony  affords.,  ,       v 

"  The  living  shall  be  upon  equal  terms  for  all,  with  the 
exceptions  hereafter  to  be  mentioned. 

"  In  old  age,  in  sickness,  or  when  an  accident  occurs, 
care  shall  be  taken  of  all  parties,  medical  aid  shall  be 
afforded,  and  every  attention  shown  to  them  that  kindness 
can  suggest. 

"  Each  member  shall,  within  a  fixed  amount  in  value, 
have  the  free  choice  of  food  and  clothing;  to  effect  this,  a 

87 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

credit  (to  be  hereafter  fixed  by  the  committee),  will  be 
opened  in  the  store  for  each  family,  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  its  useful  members,  also  for  each  single  member, 
but  beyond  this  amount,  no  one  will  be  permitted  to  draw 
on  credit.  The  exceptions  to  this  rule  are  the  following, 
to  wit^ 

"  11  When  the  proprietor  of  the  establishment  shall 
deem  it  necessary  for  the  promotion  of  the  system,  and  the 
interest  and  improvement  of  the  society,  to  engage  scientific 
and  experienced  persons  to  superintend  some  of  the  most 
difficult,  useful,  or  responsible  situations,  at  a  fixed  salary, 
then  such  individuals  shall  have  a  credit  upon  the  store  in 
proportion  to  their  income. 

"  2.  When  any  peculiar  or  unforeseen  case  may  arise,  a 
general  meeting  of  all  the  members  shall  be  called  by  the 
committee,  who  shall  state  the  particulars  of  the  case  to 
the  meeting;  the  members  present  shall  deliberate  upon 
the  subject,  and  give  their  vote  by  ballot,  and  the  question 
shall  be  decided  by  the  majority. 

"Each  family  and  individual  member  shall  have  a 
credit  and  debit  account,  in  which  they  will  be  charged 
with  what  they  receive,  at  the  prices  the  Harmonists  usually 
received  for  the  same  articles  and  credits  by  the  value  of 
their  services,  to  be  estimated  by  the  committee,  assisted  by 
the  persons  at  the  head  of  the  departments  in  which  the 
respective  individuals  may  be  employed;  the  value  of  their 
services  over  their  expenditure  shall  be  placed  at  the  end 
of  each  year  to  their  credit  in  the  books  of  the  society, 
but  no  part  of  this  credit  shall  be  drawn  out,  except  in  the 
productions  of  the  establishment,  or  in  store  goods,  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  committee. 

"Members  may  visit  their  friends,  or  travel  whenever 
they  please,  provided  the  committee  can  conveniently  sup- 
ply their  places  in  the  departments  in  which  they  may  be 
respectively  employed. 

"  To  enable  the  members  to  travel,  they  will  be  supplieci 

8B 


TEE   PRELIMINARY   SOCIETY 

with  funds  to  half  the  amount  placed  to  their  credit,  not, 
however,  exceeding  one  hundred  dollars  in  any  one  year, 
unl^  the  distance  they  have  to  travel  from  home  exceeds 
six  hundred  miles. 

"  Members  may  receive  their  friends  to  visit  them,  pro- 
vided they  be  answerable  that  such  visitors,  during  their 
stay,  do  not  transgress  the  rules  of  the  society. 

"  The  children  wil^  be  located  in  the  best  possible  man- 
ner in  day-schools,  and  will  board  and  sleep  in  their  parents' 
houses.  Should  any  members,  however,  prefer  placing 
their  children  in  the  boarding-school,  they  must  make  a 
particular  and  individual  engagement  with  the  committee; 
but  no  members  shall  be  permitted  to  bind  themselves  nor 
their  children  to  the  society  for  a  longer  period  than  one 
week. 

"  All  the  members  shall  enjoy  complete  liberty  of  con- 
science, and  be  afforded  every  facility  for  exercising  those 
practises  of  religious  worship  and  devotion  which  they  may 
prefer. 

"  Should  the  arrangements  formed  for  the  happiness  of 
the  members  fail  to  effect  their  object,  any  of  them,  by  giv- 
ing a  week's  notice,  can  quit  the  society,  taking  with  them, 
in  the  productions  of  the  establishment,  the  value  of  what 
they  brought,  which  value  shall  be  ascertained  and  fixed 
by  the  committee.  The  members  may  also,  in  the  same 
manner,  take  out  the  amount  of  what  appears  to  their  credit 
in  the  books  of  the  society,  at  the  end  of  the  year  imme- 
diately preceding  their  removal,  provided  that  amount  still 
remain  to  their  credit. 

"Any  families  or  members  contravening  any  of  the 
articles  of  this  constitution,  or  acting  in  any  way  improp- 
erly, shall  be  dismissed  by  the  committee  from  the  society 
and  settlement,  upon  giving  them  the  same  notice  by  which 
they  are  at  liberty  to  quit  the  society. 

"  Persons  who  possess  capital,  and  who  do  not  wish  to  be 
employed,  may  partake  of  the  benefits  of  this  society,  by 

89 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

paying  such  sum  annually  as  may  be  agreed  upon  between 
them  and  the  committee,  always  paying  a  quarter  in 
advance. 

"  Persons  wishing  to  invest  capital  on  interest  in  the 
funds  of  the  society  may  do  so  by  making  a  particular 
agreement  with  the  committee/' 

After  the  adoption  of  this  constitution,  Eobert  Owen 
addressed  the  meeting.  At  the  end  of  the  second  year, 
he  declared,  the  members  might  choose  one-half  of  the 
committee  of  control.  The  next  step,  which  might  be 
taken  in  the  following  year,  would  be  the  establishment 
of  the  perfect  community.  He  recommended  that  each 
family  consume,  so  far  as  possible,  "  those  articles  which 
are  the  productions  of  America,"  so  that  the  society  might 
speedily  become  independent.  He  urged  that  wherever  it 
was  possible  vegetable  gardens  be  attached  to  the  house- 
hold premises,  and  that  the  dwellings,  inside  and  out,  be 
kept  neat  and  clean.  All  differences  between  the  members 
should  be  settled  by  arbitration,  and  all  disputes,  quarrel- 
ing, and  drunkenness  were  to  be  strictly  prohibited.  It  was 
his  desire  "  to  forbid  the  use  of  liquors  altogether,"  but 
he  considered  "  such  rigor  impracticable  for  the  present." 
The  youth  were  to  be  organized  into  militia  companies  and 
drilled  for  healthful  exercise  and  defense,  but  children  were 
to  be  taught  that  war  was  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the 
social  system. 

Though  many  of  the  less  competent  desired  to  enter  at 
once  into  communistic  association,  there  were  no  imme- 
diate manifestations  of  dissatisfaction  at  the  adoption  of 
a  temporary  semiindividual  system.  While  the  power  of 
naming  the  entire  membership  of  the  committee  of  con- 
trol was  vested  in  Robert  Owen,  he  contented  himself  with 
designating  four  members,  who,  wdth  the  rest,  were  elected 
by  the  society.  Little  over  a  month  after  the  formation  of 
the  Preliminary  Society,  Mr.  Owen  left  N'ew  Harmony,  en 

90 


THE   PRELIMINARY   SOCIETY 

route  for  New  Lanark,  with  the  intention  of  bringing  his 
family  to  Indiana.  He  embarked  for  Liverpool  from  New 
York  on  July  17,  1825,  and  did  not  return  to  New  Har- 
mony until  the  following  January.  Before  leaving,  he 
recommended  that  the  inhabitants  meet  together  three  eve- 
nings in  each  week — one  for  the  general  discussion  of  sub- 
jects connected  with  the  welfare  of  the  community,  another 
for  a  concert  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music,  and  a  third 
for  a  public  ball.  He  left  a  school  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty  children,  who  were  educated,  clothed,  and  boarded 
at  the  public  expense.  Mr.  Maclure  did  not  remain  at  New 
Harmony,  but,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  lifetime  of 
the  experiment,  was  traveling  for  his  health. 


91 


CHAPTER   X 

"the  half-way  house" 

DuKiNG  the  absence  of  Robert  Owen  in  Europe,  the 
New  Harmony  Gazette,  the  official  organ  of  the  commu- 
nity, was  established.  Its  first  issue  is  dated  October  1, 
1825,  and  bears  the  motto:  "If  we  can  not  reconcile  all 
opinions,  let  us  endeavor  to  unite  all  hearts."  The  pro- 
spectus stated:  "In  our  Gazette,  we  purpose  developing 
more  fully  the  principles  of  the  social  system,  that  the 
world,  with  ourselves,  may,  by  contrast,  be  convinced  that 
individuality  detracts  largely  from  the  sum  of  human  hap- 
piness." "Although  our  columns  will  ever  be  closed 
against  personal  invective,"  stated  the  prospectus,  "yet 
they  will  ever  be  open  to  the  free  expression  of  opinions, 
which,  however  erroneous,  may  become  useful,  where  rea- 
son and  truth  are  left  free  to  combat  them."  The  pub- 
lication continued  through  three  volumes.  Like  all  its 
contemporaries  of  that  period,  the  Gazette  devoted  little 
space  to  what  w^e  now  denominate  local  news.  Its  columns 
were  filled  with  essays  on  such  subjects  as  Moral  Respon- 
sibility and  Human  Happiness,  alternating  with  selec- 
tions from  Mr.  Owen's  works,  dissertations  on  agricultural 
topics,  scientific  articles,  and  such  general  news  as  might 
come  to  the  attention  of  the  editor  through  the  medium  of 
exchanges  which  could  not  be  called  recent  by  the  time  the 
river  boat  or  overland  carrier  had  delivered  them  at  New 
Harmony,  which  had  only  a  weekly  mail  service.  The 
more  important  events  at  New  Harmony  are,  however,  re- 
corded, and  from  the' pages  of  the  Gazette  we  must  draw 

9^ 


''THE  HALF-WAY   HOUSE'' 

the  larger  part  of  our  information  concerning  the  active 
community  history. 

In  one  of  the  first  numbers  of  the  Gazette  appears  an 
official  View  of  New  Harmony,  and  a  review  of  the  work 
accomplished  by  the  society  during  the  first  six  months 
of  settlement.  "  The  village/'  says  the  Gazette,  "  is  regu- 
larly laid  out  in  squares,  forming  four  streets  running  north 
and  south,  and  six  running  east  and  west:  the  whole  in- 
cluded in  six  wards,  containing  thirty-five  brick,  forty-five 
frame,  and  one  hundred  log  buildings,  occupied  for  various 
purposes.  Some  of  the  buildings  are  spacious  and  costly, 
the  principal  of  which  are  the  town-hall,  the  mansion- 
house,  formerly  occupied  by  Mr.  Eapp,  the  public  store  and 
manufactories,  the  boarding-school,  and  several  large  board- 
ing-houses for  the  accommodation  of  the  members  of  the 
society.  Great  uniformity  of  structures  is  observed  in  the 
dwelling-houses,  which  have  an  air  of  neatness,  although 
small,  and  inconvenient  for  families  accustomed  to  a  city 
life."  Of  the  town-hall,  heretofore  described  as  the  Rap- 
pite  church,  the  Gazette  said:  "  The  whole  building  has  a 
grand  and  imposing  appearance.  The  second  stories  of 
two  of  the  wings  are  laid  off  into  small  rooms,  which  serve 
for  music,  reading,  debating,  and  other  social  meetings. 
The  large  lower  room  is  appropriated  to  deliberative  assem- 
blages of  the  citizens,  to  balls  and  concerts,  and  is  lighted 
up  every  evening  for  the  convenience  of  those  who  may 
choose  to  pass  the  time  together.  The  church  is  a  neat 
frame  building,  painted  white,  the  spire  of  which  is  fur- 
nished with  two  heavy  bells,  and  is  set  apart  for  religious 
meetings,  and  for  day  and  evening  schools,  to  which  every 
member  desirous  of  elementary  instruction  has  access.  The 
boarding-school  is  a  convenient,  airy,  three-story  brick 
building,  ninety  feet  by  sixty-five,  and  contains  accommo- 
dations for  one  hundred  and  sixty  children.  The  institu- 
tion is  at  present  under  a  favorable  organization,  and  the 
number  of  pupils  amounts  to  upward  of  one  hundred." 

93 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

'^Manufactures  and  trades,"  continued  the  Gazette, 
"are  among  the  leading  objects  to  which  associations 
formed  on  the  cooperative  plan  should  turn  their  attention, 
for  in  no  other  way  can  a  desirable  state  of  independence 
be  secured.  The  experience  of  our  predecessors  convinced 
them  of  this  fact,  and  they  have  left  behind  them  respect- 
able evidences  of  their  devotion  to  these  two  branches  of 
industry.  Their  principal  manufacturing  establishment 
consisted  of  two  spacious  buildings,  one  occupied  as  a  mer- 
chandise-mill, and  the  other  filled  with  machinery  for 
manufacturing  cotton  and  wool,  all  driven  by  a  steam- 
engine  of  sixty  horse-power.  The  weaving,  dressing,  and 
dye-houses  are  built  on  an  extensive  and  convenient  plan, 
calculated  for  operations  far  exceeding  the  wants  of  the 
society.  The  cloths  and  flannels  hitherto  produced  at  this 
place  have  been  in  high  reputation  throughout  the  country. 
The  present  society  has  a  no  less  cheering  prospect  before 
them  in  their  capacity  of  growing  to  any  extent  the  raw 
materials  of  cotton  and  wool  than  in  their  means  of  prose- 
cuting the  manufacture  of  these  articles,  equal  to  the  con- 
sumption of  themselves  and  their  neighbors. 

"  The  mechanical  branches  possess  the  requisite  facili- 
ties for  carrying  on  their  respective  trades,  in  workshops 
and  tools,  and  include  an  extensive  brewery,  tan-yard,  soap 
and  candle  factory,  etc.,  but  an  accession  of  skilful  hands 
in  nearly  all  these  branches  of  industry,  as  well  as  in  some 
other  departments,  is  still  desirable.  No  fears,  however, 
are  entertained  that  these  wants  will  long  remain  unsup- 
plied,  if  an  opinion  can  be  formed  from  the  daily  applica- 
tions for  admission  to  membership  which  the  society  is 
and  has  been  under  the  necessity  of  rejecting  through  want 
of  suitable  accommodations.  In  future,  or  until  such  ac- 
commodations can  be  provided,  no  applications  can  meet 
with  success,  except  from  those  who  possess  a  knowledge 
of  the  most  useful  and  indispensable  arts. 

"  Our  manufacturing  and  mechanical  branches  may  be 

94 


''THE   HALF-WAY   HOUSE" 

considered  in  a  state  of  infancy.  Notwithstanding  the  pur- 
chase included  most  things  necessary  for  prosecuting  them 
on  a  pretty  extensive  scale,  yet  we  have  had  no  good  cause 
to  calculate  even  on  the  limited  degree  of  success  which 
has  attended  them.  The  commencement  of  this  society 
may  be  dated  on  the  first  of  May  last,  two  months  previous 
to  which  time  our  Mr.  Owen,  with  a  few  exceptions,  was 
an  entire  stranger  to  the  persons  now  composing  his  new 
association.  The  transatlantic  concerns  of  our  founder  left 
him  but  little  time  for  completing  his  arrangements  here, 
and  a  population  of  eight  hundred  persons  was,  in  the 
short  space  of  three  weeks,  drawn  together,  necessarily 
without  much  deliberation,  or  any  reference  to  their  pro- 
fessional skill  or  immediate  usefulness.  This  state  of  things 
left  us  but  little  to  expect  from  their  ability  to  carry  on 
successfully  the  multifarious  operations  necessary  for  the 
continuance  and  comfort  of  so  large  a  population.  Under 
these  and  many  other  unfavorable  circumstances,  our  man- 
ufactories have  been  at  work  since  the  middle  of  June. 
With  the  machinery  now  in  hand,  our  operations  in  the 
wool  business  should  turn  out  one  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds  of  yarn  per  day,  but  the  want  of  spinners  reduces 
the  business.  The  frilling  and  dressing  departments  have, 
at  present,  neither  regular  superintendents  nor  workmen, 
consequently  they  are  not  prosecuted  with  effect.  The 
cotton-spinning  establishment  is  equal  to  producing  be- 
tween three  and  four  hundred  pounds  of  yarn  per  week, 
and  is  under  very  good  direction,  but  skilful  and  ready 
hands  are  much  wanting,  which  time  will  furnish  from  our 
present  population.  The  dye-house  is  a  spacious  brick 
building,  furnished  with  copper  vessels,  capable  of  con- 
taining between  fifteen  hundred  and  two  thousand  gallons, 
and  will  probably  compare  in  convenience  with  any  in  the 
United  States.  At  present  this  valuable  establishment  is 
doing  nothing  for  want  of  a  skilful  person  to  undertake 
the  direction  of  it.    The  manufacture  of  soap,  candles,  and 

95 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

glue  has  hitherto  rather  exceeded  our  consumption.  A 
convenient  and  moderately  extensive  ropewalk  has  fur- 
nished the  store  with  articles  of  that  trade.  The  hat-manu- 
factory is  under  good  organization,  and  has  attached  to  it 
eight  efficient  workmen.  The  boot  and  shoe  department 
is  doing  well,  seventeen  workmen  being  constantly  em- 
ployed. Besides  these,  in  the  employed  professions,  are 
thirty-six  farmers  and  field  laborers,  four  tanners,  two 
gardeners,  two  butchers,  two  bakers,  two  distillers,  one 
brewer,  one  tinner,  two  watchmakers,  four  black  and  white 
smiths,  two  turners,  one  machine-maker,  four  coopers,  three 
printers,  one  stocking-weaver,  three  sawyers,  seven  tailors, 
twelve  seamstresses  and  mantua-makers,  nine  carpenters, 
four  bricklayers,  two  stonecutters,  four  wheelwrights,  one 
cabinet-maker  and  three  cloth-weavers.  Of  the  unemployed 
professions  we  have  three  tobacconists  and  two  paper- 
makers.  The  pottery  is  doing  nothing  for  want  of  hands, 
and  we  have  at  present  neither  saddlers,  harness-makers, 
leather-dressers,  coppersmiths,  brush-makers,  comb-mak- 
ers, glaziers,  painters,  nor  bookbinders. 

"  The  merchant-mill,  driven  by  water,  at  the  cut-off 
(beside  the  one  in  the  village  operated  by  steam),  is  a  large 
establishment,  having  three  sets  of  stones,  and  complete 
fixtures  for  the  manufacture  of  flour,  and  is  capable  of 
turning  out  sixty  barrels  in  twenty-four  hours.  One  mile 
from  the  town  is  a  sawmill  capable  of  furnishing  an  un- 
limited quantity  of  lumber."  Evidently  both  these  estab- 
lishments were  still  lying  idle,  as  their  operation  is  not 
mentioned.  "  A  cotton-gin  of  sixty  saws  is  at  this  time  in 
active  operation,  doing  a  good  business  for  the  society  as 
well  as  for  the  surrounding  country.  We  have  a  well-sup- 
plied apothecary  shop,  under  the  direction  of  a  highly  re- 
spectable physician,  who  gives  his  attendance  and  dispenses 
medicine  without  charge  to  the  citizens. 

"  The  mercantile  store  is  doing  an  extensive  business 
with  the  country,  while  it  supplies  all  the  inhabitants  with 

96 


"  THE  HALF-WA  Y.  HO  USE '' 

all  their  necessaries.  The  tavern,  which  is  large,  commo- 
dious, and  well  regulated,  is  much  frequented  by  strang- 
ers, who  are  attracted  to  visit  us  either  through  curios- 
ity or  from  a  desire  to  partake  of  our  social  amusements." 
"  In  taking  a  survey  of  ISTew  Harmony,"  said  the  Ga- 
zette of  October  22d,  "  the  mind  is  struck  with  a  degree  of 
admiration  at  the  appearance,  which  designates  the  prog- 
ress of  its  late  industrious  inhabitants,  both  in  the  arts  of 
life  and  in  their  progress  toward  a  more  perfect  state  of 
society.  Here,  the  rude  log  cabin  marks  their  first  humble 
efforts,  there  the  neat  frame  house  bespeaks  their  improve- 
ment in  taste  and  skill;  again,  their  spacious,  substantial 
community  houses  tell  us  of  their  ability  to  supply  an 
increase  of  comforts,  and  the  public  buildings  exhibit  a 
great  amount  of  surplus  labor  and  skill.  The  two  spacious 
granaries,  calculated  to  lay  up  stores  for  the  consumption 
of  years,  are  among  the  most  prominent  objects  of  the 
place.  One  is  a  four-storied  frame,  one  hundred  feet  by 
eighty;  the  other  is  a  vast  building  of  brick  and  stone, 
with  a  tiled  roof,  and  having  five  floors  laid  with  tile  brick. 
From  its  strength  and  appearance,  it  might  have  been 
taken  for  a  fortress  rather  than  a  storehouse  for  grain. 
The  public  buildings  are  calculated  to  attract  the  attention 
of  strangers  who  visit  the  place,  as  much  from  the  novelty 
of  design  as  from  the  amount  of  labor  and  materials  con- 
sumed in  their  construction." 

The  Gazette  also  stated  that  the  river  abounded  in  fish, 
"of  the  description  usually  found  in  the  western  waters. 
We  think  our  neighborhood  is  not  infected  with  mis- 
chievous animals.  Of  the  panther,  the  bear,  and  the  fox 
we  have  heard  nothing.  Wolves  are  said  to  depredate  on 
our  pigs  and  calves  when  running  in  retired  forests.  Deer 
are  often  seen  bounding  over  our  fields,  and  browsing  on 
our  corn.  Numbers  of  fawns  are  offered  for  sale  on  our 
streets  during  the  spring  months." 

Under  date  of  October  10th,  a  member  of  the  society 

8  97 


THE  NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

wrote  to  a  friend  in  Boston :  "  Tlie  society  has  not  been 
long  enough  together  to  acquire  any  particular  character: 
you  can  judge  yourself  that  a  collection  of  individuals  from 
all  parts  of  the  earth,  of  all  kinds,  sects,  and  denomina- 
tions, who  have  hastily  rushed  together,  can  have  no  char- 
acter as  yet,  except  indeed  the  absence  of  one.  If  this  is  not 
strictly  true,  the  exceptions  to  it  are  that  the  people  gen- 
erally show  a  disposition  to  do  as  well  as  they  know  how, 
and  to  learn  to  do  as  much  better  as  they  can,  which  is  all 
that  appears  to  be  expected  by  those  who  have  the  burdens 
to  bear."  Another  letter  from  a  member  to  an  eastern 
friend,  under  date  of  October  30th,  stated  that  "  so  far, 
domestic  quarrels,  disputes  between  individual  members, 
and  religious  and  political  controversies  are  unknown,  at 
least  they  are  so  very  infrequent  as  to  be  unknown  to  the 
writer,  probably  because  we  have  no  opposing  interests  to 
generate  quarrels ;  and  also  because  there  is  no  such  thing, 
under  the  new  system,  as  an  insult;  every  man  speaks 
according  to  the  impression  which  dictates  his  words,  and 
all  impressions  are  made  upon  him  by  the  exercise  of  facul- 
ties over  which  he  has  no  control." 

The  Gazette  of  October  29th  contains  the  following 
review  of  the  condition  of  the  community  affairs: 

"  Every  State  in  the  Union,  with  the  exception  of  the 
two  most  southern,  and  almost  every  country  in  the  north 
of  Europe,  has  contributed  to  make  up  our  population.  We 
may  readily  conceive  that  a  population  collected  from  so 
many  different  countries,  and  of  different  habits  and  opin- 
ions, possessing  no  common  ties  of  interest  or  sympathy, 
could  not  immediately  coalesce  nor  present  to  the  observer 
any  marked  prevailing  character. 

"  In  comparing  the  moral  condition  of  our  citizens  with 
the  state  of  the  old  society,  we  are  struck  with  the  degree 
of  advantage  which  the  former  has  over  the  latter;  and 
the  mind,  accounting  for  the  difference,  is  involuntarily 
directed  in  search  of  some  new  principle.     Here,  social 

98 


"TBE  HALF-WAY  HOUSE 


}> 


intercourse  is  not  disturbed  by  conflicting  interests^  nor 
the  long  catalogue  of  bad  feelings  generated  by  them,  but 
every  man  meets  his  neighbor  with  honest  confidence. 

"  This  society  regards  education  as  public  property, 
.  .  »  and  holds  that  the  educating  and  training  of 
youth  should  be  among  the  first  objects  of  its  solicitude 
and  care.  .  .  .  Well-regulated  amusements  should  be 
no  less  a  part  of  the  business  of  life  than  other  occupa- 
tions, but  this  important  object  has  hitherto  been  mostly 
directed  by  chance:  in  consequence,  immorality  and  dis- 
order have  to  a  great  extent  prevailed.  .  .  .  This 
society  has  made  it  its  especial  care  to  blend  amusements 
with  industry  and  study.  Tuesday  evenings  are  appro- 
priated to  balls,  at  which  we  have  an  able  band  of  music, 
and  a  general  attendance  of  the  youthful  population: 
Friday  evenings  to  concerts,  at  which,  in  addition  to  the 
regular  band,  such  of  the  children  as  have  musical  talent 
are  introduced.  On  Wednesday  evening,  public  meetings 
are  held,  when  all  subjects  relating  to  the  well-being  of 
the  society  are  freely  and  fully  discussed. 

"  The  military  of  this  place  consists  of  one  company  of 
infantry,  one  of  artillery,  and  a  corps  of  riflemen,  which 
together  with  a  company  of  veterans,  and  one  of  riflemen 
just  forming,  will  amount  to  two  himdred  and  fifty  sol- 
diers ;  thus,  while  the  people  provide  for  their  own  protec- 
tion against  the  social  ills  of  life,  they  do  not  neglect  the 
means  of  national  defense. 

"  From  a  review  of  the  circumstances  existing  at  this 
place,  our  readers  will  now  perceive  that  if  we  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  accomplish  all  the  objects  contemplated  in  the 
formation  of  this  association,  so  much  has,  however,  been 
completed,  as  to  convince  us  of  the  practicability  and  assure 
us  of  the  ultimate  success  of  Mr.  Owen^s  plans  for  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  mankind." 

On  November  7th  occurred  the  installation  of  oiBBcers 
of  the  first  secret  society  in  the  community — The  New 

99 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

Harmony  Philanthropic  Lodge  of  Masons,  showing  that 
Mr.  Owen's  plans  did  not  contemplate  the  abolition  of 
secret  societies.  In  the  Gazette  of  that  date,  this  announce- 
ment is  made :  "  The  Eegnlar  Meeting  of  the  Female  Social 
Society  is  postponed  until  Monday  evening."  There  is  no 
earlier  record  of  a  woman's  club.  The  first  marriage  in 
the  community  recorded  by  the  Gazette  was  that  of  "  Mr. 
Alfred  Salmon  to  Miss  Elizabeth  S.  Palmer/'  which  took 
place  on  October  27th^  the  ceremony  being  performed 
by  a  minister  of  the  gospel  named  Meek.  In  spite  of 
the  inauguration  of  the  social  system,  the  New  Harmony 
store  was  advertising  magistrates'  blanks. 

In  an  early  October  issue  of  the  Gazette  appeared  a  com- 
munication signed  *^  An  Illinois  Farmer,"  in  which  he 
declared,  "  in  the  most  unequivocal  manner,"  that  "  the 
principles  of  Eobert  Owen,  or  any  society  founded  upon 
them,  will  not  and  can  not  succeed.  They  will  at  the  out- 
set commit  suicide  on  themselves,  if  steadily  adhered  to." 
The  editor  remonstrated  with  the  correspondent,  and 
assured  him  of  the  present  and  future  success  of  tKe  com- 
munity. In  reply  to  a  further  communication  the  Gazette 
said  editorially :  "  We  would  inform  the  Illinois  Farmer, 
in  answer  to  his  second  communication  on  dancing,  that 
we  suffer  not  our  amusements  to  interfere  with  our  regular 
employments;  but,  after  the  fatigue  of  the  day,  when  we 
can  not  see  to  handle  a  plow,  we  consider  ourselves  at 
perfect  liberty  to  devote  our  evenings  to  intellectual  im- 
provement or  to  any  rational  recreation." 

In  an  editorial  advocating  increased  rights  for  women, 
the  Gazette  declared :  "  It  is,  we  believe,  contemplated  in 
Mr.  Owen's  system,  by  giving  our  female  population  as 
good  an  education  as  our  males,  to  qualify  them  for  every 
situation  in  life  in  which,  consistently  with  their  organiza- 
tion, they  may  be  placed." 

As  early  as  September  19, 1825,  the  first  society  formed 
on  Eobert  Owen's  principles,  other  than  that  at  New  Har- 

100 


''TEE   HALF-WAY   HOUSE" 

mony,  was  in  process  of  organization  in  Green  County, 
Ohio.  This  society  was  called  the  Yellow  Springs  com- 
munity, and  a  correspondent  writes  the  Gazette  hopefully 
of  its  progress. 

While 'New  Harmony  was  generally  looked  upon  as  a 
center  of  infidelity,  there  were  frequent  religious  services 
there.  The  only  reservation  made  with  regard  to  the  use 
of  the  church  was  that  two  hours  on  Sunday  morning  were 
occupied  by  a  lecture  on  the  social"  system,  "  the  lecturer 
confining  his  remarks  to  subjects  calculated  to  suppress 
discord  and  vice,  and  studiously  avoiding  anything  that 
might  arouse  ill  feeling  or  wound  the  religious  prejudices 
of  his  hearers."  There  was  a  wide-spread  prejudice  against 
the  New  Harmony  schools  on  account  of  a  belief  that  athe- 
istic principles  were  taught.  Eeligious  matters,  however, 
were  not  discussed  in  the  schools,  "  that  being  left  to  the 
parents  or  religious  instructors."  Permission  to  speak  at 
the  church  was  given  to  any  minister  who  asked  it,  "  his 
creed  not  being  asked."  Sunday  in  the  community  was  a 
day  of  rest,  and  to  most  of  the  members  of  the  society  a 
day  of  recreation. 

By  Christmas  of  1825,  the  population  of  New  Harmony 
numbered  about  one  thousand.  The  Gazette  published  a 
review  of  the  operations  of  the  society,  in  which  it  con- 
gratulated the  members  on  their  advancement  in  the  direc- 
tion of  unity  and  harmony,  which  it  declared  had  been 
effected  by  reducing  Mr.  Owen's  principles  to  practise. 
"  Popular  opinion  being  now  decidedly  opposed  to  indo- 
lence and  vice,  the  idle  member  must  become  industrious, 
and  the  vicious  become  more  virtuous,  or  they  can  not  rest 
contentedly  in  the  bosom  of  our  community." 

Kobert  Owen  had  arrived  with  his  party  at  New  York 
on  November  7th,  but  remained  for  some  time  in  the  East 
pushing  the  new  propaganda.  A  Washington  paper  of 
December  5th  stated.:  "  On  Saturday  last.  Captain  Mc- 
Donald and  Stedman  Whit  well,  friends  of  Mr.  Owen,  and 

101 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

deputed  by  him,  waited  by  appointment  upon  the  Presi- 
dent, and  presented  to  him  for  the  use  of  the  general 
government  a  model  of  one  of  the  cities  for  two  thousand 
people,  which  Mr.  Owen  proposes  to  execute  himself,  and 
which  he  recommends  to  be  universally  adopted  in  society. 
The  model  is  almost  six  feet  square,  and  is,  therefore,  upon 
a  scale  sufficiently  large  to  exhibit  satisfactorily  the  various 
descriptions  of  buildings  and  their  relative  dimensions." 

On  December  28th,  the  Gazette  said :  "  From  the  nu- 
merous applications  which  we  have  received  for  member- 
ship ;  from  the  rapidity  with  which  the  liberal  principles  of 
the  social  system  are  embraced  by  intelligent  and  reflect- 
ing minds,  and  from  the  general  disposition,  wherever  they 
have  been  received,  toward  reducing  them  to  practise,  and 
from  the  number  of  social  communities  springing  up  in 
this  State,  independent  of  every  advantage  offered  to  in- 
dividual settlers,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  increase 
in  population  will  be  greater  than  at  any  former  period; 
and  were  it  possible  to  accommodate  the  applicants  with 
houses,  this  little  town,  before  the  next  sitting  of  the  legis- 
lature, would  have  an  increase  of  many  times  its  present 
population.'^ 


103 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE   "permanent   COMMUNITY" 

The  devil  at  length  scrambled  out  of  the  hole 
Discovered  by  Symmes  at  the  freezing  North  Pole  : 

He  mounted  an  iceberg,  spread  his  wings  for  a  sail. 
And  started  for  earth  with  his  long,  barbed  tail. 


He  heard  that  a  number  of  people  were  going  ■ 

To  live  on  the  Wabash  with  great  Mr.  Owen  :  ] 

He  said  to  himself,  "  I  must  now  have  a  care, 
Circumstances  require  that  myself  should  be  there. 


"  I  know  that  these  persons  think  they  are  impelled. 
And  by  power  of  circumstance  all  men  are  held, 
And  owe  no  allegiance  to  heaven  or  me : 
"What  a  place  this  for  work  for  the  devil  will  be. 

**  Since  Adam  first  fell  by  my  powerful  hand, 
I  have  wandered  for  victims  through  every  known  land, 
But  in  all  my  migrations  ne'er  hit  on  a  plan 
That  would  give  me  the  rule  so  completely  o'er  man. 

"  I  have  set  sects  to  fighting  and  shedding  of  blood. 
And  have  whispered  to  bigots  they're  all  doing  good, 

Inquisitions  I've  founded,  made  kings  my  lies  swallow, 
But  this  plan  of  free  living  beats  all  my  schemes  hollow 

*'  I  have  tempted  poor  Job,  and  have  smote  him  with  sores  : 
I  have  tried  all  good  men,  and  caught  preachers  by  scores, 
But  never  on  earth,  through  my  whole  course  of  evil. 
Until  now  could  I  say,  '  Here's  a  plan  beats  the  devil.* 

"  I  am  satisfied  now  this  will  make  the  coast  clear. 
For  men  to  all  preaching  will  turn  a  deaf  ear  : 

Since  it's  plain  that  religion  is  changed  to  opinions, 
I  must  hasten  back  home,  and  enlarge  my  dominions." 

The  devil  then  mounted  again  on  the  ice. 
And  dashed  through  the  waves,  and  got  home  in  a  trice, 
And  told  his  fell  imps  whom  he  kept  at  the  pole 
Circumstances  required  they  should  widen  the  hole ! 

— Poem  in  opposition  to  the  Owen  community  in  the  Philadelphia 
Gazette^  January,  1826. 

103 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT  \ 

I 

On  January  18,  1826,  Eobert  Owen,  with  his  "  boat-  i 

load  of  knowledge/^  arrived  again  at  New  Harmony.    He  i 

was  greeted  with  great  rejoicing  by  the  inhabitants,  the  I 

children  from  the  boarding-school  escorting  him  from  the  ' 

limits  of  the  village  to  the  tavern.     Eobert  Owen  was  ! 

delighted  with  the  apparent  success  of  the  society,  and  j 

declared  that  the  people  had  progressed  far  toward  the  ; 

conditions  necessary  for  the  formation  of  a  perfect  com-  j 

munity.     The  people  generally  believed  that  the  arrival  ; 

of  their  leader,  with  his  party  of  "  wise  men  from  the  i 

East,"  would  rally  all  retreat  and  lead  on  to  victory.    Un-  | 

der  Mr.  Owen's  practised  hand  the  idle  factories  would  i 
soon  be  in  full  operation  and  all  the  projected  plans  of  the 

founder,  including  the  building  of  his  new  village  of  unity  \ 

and  cooperation,  would  soon  be  undertaken.     The  educa-  j 

tional  feature  of  the  experiment  was  certain  to  receive  a  ] 

great  impetus  from  the  accession  of  such  a  corps  of  scholars  i 

as  that  which  had  accompanied  Mr.  Owen  from  New  York.  j 

Mr.    Owen  was  enthusiastic  and  optimistic,   as  well   as  \ 

anxious  for  the  immediate  trial  of  his  ultimate  plans.    One  , 
week  after  his  arrival,  he  announced  that  in  consideration 

of  the  progress  which  had  been  made,  the  Preliminary  j 

Society  would  be  cut  off  two  years  before  its  time,  and  a  j 

community  of  perfect  equality  inaugurated.    "  I  think  my  ' 

father  must  have  been  as  well  pleased  with  the  condition  ! 

of  things  at  New  Harmony  as  I  myself  was/'  writes  Robert  | 

Dale  Owen.    "  At  all  events    ...    he  disclosed  to  me  i 

his  intention  to  propose  to  the  Harmonites  that  they  should  > 

form  themselves  into  a  community  of  equality,  based  on  ; 

the  principle  of  common  property.    This  took  me  by  sur-  j 

prise."  j 

On  the  25th  of  January,  1826,  it  was  resolved  in  a  | 

meeting  of  the  Preliminary  Society  to  organize  a  Com-  ; 

munity  of  Equality  from  among  the  members   of  the  ; 

society.     The  meeting   resolved   itself   into   a   constitu-  ■ 

tional  convention,  which  was  organized  by  the  election  of  j 

104  i 


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THE  LIBRARY 


THE   ''PERMANENT    COMMUNITY 


i> 


Dr.  Philip  M.  Price  as  president  and  Thomas  Pears  as 
secretary.  A  committee  of  seven  was  chosen  hy  ballot 
to  frame  a  draft  of  the  constitution  to  be  submitted  at 
a  future  meeting  of  the  convention. 

The  following  named  persons  were  chosen :  Warner  W. 
Lewis,  James  0.  Wattles,  John  Whitby,  William  Owen, 
Donald  McDonald,  R.  L.  Jennings,  and  Robert  Dale  Owen. 
On  February  1st  this  committee  made  its  report,  which 
was  vigorously  debated  through  several  sessions,  several 
substitute  plans  being  submitted  by  members  of  the  con- 
vention. At  the  sixth  session,  the  whole  subject  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  committee  for  revision.  "  The  committee 
again  reported  at  the  seventh  session,^'  says  the  Gazette, 
"and  the  constitution  proposed,  after  having  undergone 
several  alterations  and  amendments,  was  at  the  ninth  ses- 
sion of  the  convention,  held  on  Sunday  evening,  February 
5th,  formally  adopted." 

The  constitution  was  preceded  by  an  interesting  and 
comprehensive  declaration  of  principles.  "  When  a  num- 
ber of  the  human  family  associate  in  principles  which  do 
not  yet  influence  the  rest  of  the  world,"  stated  the  pre- 
amble, "  a  due  regard  to  the  opinions  of  others  requires  a 
public  declaration  of  the  object  of  their  association,  of 
their  principles,  and  of  their  intentions."  The  "  Declara- 
tion" continued: 

"  Our^  object  is  that  of  all  sentient  beings,  happi- 
ness. 

Our  principles  are: 

Equality  of  rights,  uninfluenced  by  sex  or  condi- 
tion, in  all  adults. 

"  Equality  of  duties,  modified  by  physical  and  mental 
conformation. 

"  Cooperative  union,  in  the  business  and  amusements 
of  life. 

"  Community  of  property. 

"Freedom  of  speech  and  action. 

105 


6i 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

^  Sincerity  in  all  our  proceedings. 

"Kindness  in  all  our  actions. 

"  Courtesy  in  all  our  intercourse. 

"  Order  in  all  our  arrangements. 

"  Preservation  of  health. 

"  Acquisition  of  knowledge. 

"  The  practise  of  economy,  or  of  producing  and 
using  the  best  of  everything  in  the  most  beneficial 
manner, 

"  Obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  country  in  which  we 
live. 

"  We  hold  it  to  be  self-evident : 

"  That  man  is  uniformly  actuated  by  a  desire  of  hap- 
piness. 

"  That  no  member  of  the  human  family  is  born  with 
rights  either  of  possession  or  exemption  superior  to  those  of 
his  fellows. 

"  That  freedom  in  the  sincere  expression  of  every  sen- 
timent and  opinion,  and  in  the  direction  of  every  action, 
is  the  inalienable  right  of  each  human  being,  and  can  not 
justly  be  limited  except  by  his  own  consent. 

"  That  the  preservation  of  life,  in  its  most  perfect 
state,  is  the  first  of  all  practical  considerations. 

"  And  that,  as  we  live  in  the  State  of  Indiana,  sub- 
mission to  its  laws  and  to  those  of  the  general  govern- 
ment is  necessary. 

"  Experience  has  taught  us : 

"  That  man's  character,  mental,  moral,  and  physical,  is 
the  result  of  his  formation,  his  location,  and  of  the  cir- 
cumstances within  which  he  exists. 

"  And  that  man,  at  birth,  is  formed  unconsciously  to 
himself,  is  located  without  his  consent,  and  circum- 
stanced without  his  control. 

"  Therefore,  man's  character  is  not  of  his  own  forma- 
tion, and  reason  teaches  us  that  to  a  being  of  such  nature, 
artificial  rewards  and  punishments  are  equally  inappli- 

106 


THE   "PERMANENT   COMMUNITY 


>f 


cable;  kindness  is  the  only  consistent  mode  of  treatment, 
and  courtesy  the  only  rational  species  of  deportment. 

"  We  have  observed,  in  the  affairs  of  the  world,  that 
man  is  powerful  in  action,  efficient  in  production,  and 
happy  in  social  life,  only  as  he  acts  cooperatively  and 
unitedly. 

"  Cooperative  union,  therefore,  we  consider  indispen- 
sable to  the  attainment  of  our  object. 

"  We  have  remarked  that  where  the  greatest  results 
have  been  produced  by  cooperative  union,  order  and 
economy  were  the  principal  means  of  their  attainment. 

"Experience,  therefore,  places  order  and  economy 
among  our  principles. 

"  The  departure  from  the  principle  of  man's  equal 
rights,  which  is  exhibited  in  the  arrangement  of  indi- 
vidual property,  we  have  seen  succeeded  by  competition 
and  opposition,  by  jealousy  and  dissension,  by  extrava- 
gance and  poverty,  by  tyranny  and  slavery. 

"  Therefore  we  revert  to  the  principle  of  community 
of  property. 

"  Where  the  will  and  the  power  exist,  the  result  pro- 
duced is  proportioned  to  the  knowledge  of  the  agent; 
and  in  practise  we  have  found  that  an  increase  of  intel- 
ligence is  equally  an  increase  of  happiness. 

"  We  seek  intelligence,  therefore,  as  we  seek  happiness 

itself. 

"  As  the  first  and  most  important  knowledge,  we  de- 
sire to  know  ourselves. 

"But  we  search  for  this  knowledge  in  vain  if  our 
fellow  creatures  do  not  express  to  us  openly  and  unre- 
servedly what  they  feel  and  think. 

"  Our  knowledge  remains  imperfect,  therefore,  with- 
out sincerity. 

"  We  have  seen  misery  produced  by  the  great  leading 
principles  which  prevail  over  the  world;  therefore  we 
have  not  adopted  them. 

107 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

"  We  have  always  found  truth  productive  of  happi- 
ness and  error  of  misery:  truth;,  therefore^  leads  to  our 
object,  and  we  agree  to  follow  truth  only. 

"  Truth  is  consistent,  and  in  unison  with  all  facts : 
error  is  inconsistent,  and  opposed  to  facts. 

^^  Our  reason  has  convinced  us  of  the  theoretical  truth 
of  our  principles — our  experience,  of  their  practical 
utility. 

^^For  these  reasons — with  this  object — and  on  these 
principles,  we,  the  undersigned,  form  ourselves  and  our 
children  into  a  society  and  Community  of  Equality,  for 
the  benefit  of  ourselves  and  our  children  and  of  the 
human  race,  and  do  agree  to  the  following  articles  of 
union  and  cooperation.'^ 

The  official  name  of  the  community  was  to  be  "  The 
New  Harmony  Community  of  Equality."  "  All  members 
of  the  community  shall  be  considered  as  one  family,  and 
no  one  shall  be  held  in  higher  or  lower  estimation  on 
account  of  occupation.  There  shall  be  similar  food,  cloth- 
ing, and  education,  as  near  as  can  be  furnished,  for  all 
according  to  their  ages;  and,  as  soon  as  practicable,  all 
shall  live  in  similar  houses,  and  in  all  respects  be  accom- 
modated alike.  Every  member  shall  render  his  or  her  best 
services  for  the  good  of  the  whole,  according  to  the  rules 
and  regulations  that  may  be  hereafter  adopted  by  the  com- 
munity. It  shall  always  remain  a  primary  object  of  the 
community  to  give  the  best  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual 
education  to  all  its  members. 

"  The  power  of  making  laws  shall  be  vested  in  the 
assembly,"  consisting  of  "  all  the  resident  members  of  the 
community  above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  one-sixth  of 
whom  shall  be  necessary  to  constitute  a  quorum  for  the 
transaction  of  business.  The  executive  power  of  the  com- 
munity shall  be  vested  in  a  council,  to  consist  of  the  secre- 
tary, treasurer,  and  commissary  of  the  community,  and  four 
superintendents  of  departments  to  be  chosen  as  hereinafter 

108 


THE   ''PERMANENT   COMMUNITY 


>> 


provided.  The  secretary,  treasurer,  and  commissary  shall 
be  elected  by  the  assembly/^ 

"  The  community  shall  be  divided  into  six  departments : 
Of  agriculture;  of  manufactures  and  mechanics;  of  liter- 
ature, science,  and  education;  of  domestic  economy;  of 
general  economy;  of  commerce.  These  departments  shall 
be  divided  into  occupations.  The  individuals  of  each  occu- 
pation, above  sixteen  years  of  age,  shall  nominate  to  the 
assembly  for  confirmation,  their  intendent,  and  the  intend- 
ents  of  each  occupation,  which  shall  consist  of  three  or 
more  persons,  shall  nominate  the  superintendent  of  their 
own  department;  provided,  that  the  commissary  shall  be 
superintendent  of  the  department  of  domestic  economy, 
and  the  treasurer  of  the  department  of  commerce ;  and  for 
the  purpose  of  nominating  superintendents  the  department 
of  commerce  shall  be  united  to  the  department  of  litera- 
ture, science,  and  education,  and  the  department  of  domes- 
tic economy  to  that  of  general  economy."  Where  nomi- 
nations fail  of  confirmation  by  the  assembly,  new  nomina- 
tions must  be  made.  "  The  secretary,  superintendents,  and 
intendents  shall  hold  their  offices  during  the  pleasure  of 
the  assembly." 

It  was  made  the  duty  of  the  executive  council  to  make 
all  contracts,  to  carry  into  effect  all  general  regulations, 
and  generally  to  conduct  and  superintend  all  the  concerns 
of  the  community,  subject  at  all  times  to  directions  ex- 
pressed by  a  majority  in  the  assembly,  and  communicated 
in  writing  by  the  clerk  of  the  assembly  to  the  secretary. 

"  The  executive  council  shall  also  report  weekly  to  the 
assembly  all  the  proceedings,  accounts,  receipts,  and  ex- 
penditures of  each  department  and  occupation,  and  their 
opinion  of  the  character  of  each  intendent,  and  the  intend- 
ents' opinion  of  the  daily  character  of  each  person  attached 
to  their  occupation.  All  the  accounts  of  the  community 
shall  be  balanced  at  least  once  in  each  week,  and  the  results 
communicated  to  the  assembly.     All  the  reports  of  the 

109 


THE  NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

superintendents  and  of  the  secretary,  and  all  the  transac- 
tions of  the  assembly,  shall  be  registered  and  carefully  kept 
for  perpetual  reference.  The  assembly  shall  also  register 
weekly  its  opinion  of  the  executive  council,  and  the  coun- 
cil in  like  manner  its  opinions  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
assembly. 

"  No  person  shall  hereafter  be  admitted  a  member  of 
this  community  without  the  consent  of  a  majority  of  all 
the  members  of  the  assembly ;  and  no  person  shall  be  dis- 
missed from  the  community  but  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds 
of  all  the  members  of  the  assembly;  and,  in  neither  in- 
stance, until  the  subject  shall  have  been  discussed  at  two 
successive  weekly  meetings. 

"  The  real  estate  of  the  community  shall  be  held  in  per- 
petual trust  forever  for  the  use  of  the  community  and  all 
its  members,  for  the  time  being;  and  every  person  leaving 
the  community  shall  forfeit  all  claim  thereto  or  interest 
therein,  but  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  his  or  her  just  pro- 
portion of  the  value  of  such  real  estate  acquired  during 
the  time  of  his  membership,  to  be  estimated  and  deter- 
mined as  is  provided  in  cases  of  settlement  for  the  services 
of  members  so  leaving  the  community. 

"  Each  member  shall  have  the  right  of  resignation  of 
membership  on  giving  the  community  one  week's  notice 
of  his  or  her  intention;  and  when  any  member  shall  so 
leave  the  community,  or  shall  be  dismissed  therefrom,  he 
shall  be  entitled  to  receive,  in  proper  products  of  the  com- 
munity, such  compensation  for  previous  services  as  justice 
shall  require,  to  be  determined  by  the  council,  subject  to 
an  appeal  to  the  assembly,  respect  being  had  to  the  gains 
or  losses  of  the  community  during  the  time  of  his  mem- 
bership, as  well  as  to  the  expenses  of  the  individual  and 
of  his  or  her  family  for  education  or  otherwise." 

The  community  was  not  to  be  responsible  for  individual 
debts  contracted  by  members.  "  No  credit  shall,  on  any 
account,  be  given  or  received  by  the  community  or  its 

110 


THE   ''PERMANENT   COMMUNITY 


i> 


agent  or  agents  except  for  sncTi  property  or  money  as  may 
be  advanced  by  Eobert  Owen,  or  William  Maclure,  or  mem- 
bers of  the  community."  Money  brought  into  the  com- 
munity by  members  shall  be  returned  to  them  on  with- 
drawal from  the  society.  "  Every  member  shall  enjoy  the 
most  perfect  freedom  on  all  subjects  of  knowledge  and 
opinion,  especially  on  the  subject  of  religion.  Children  of 
deceased  members  shall  continue  to  enjoy  all  the  privi- 
leges of  membership.  All  misunderstandings  that  may 
arise  between  members  of  the  community  shall  be  adjusted 
within  the  community. 

''  As  this  system  is  directly  opposed  to  secrecy  and  exclu- 
sion of  any  kind,  every  practical  facility  shall  be  given  to 
strangers  to  enable  them  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
regulations  of  the  community,  and  to  examine  the  results 
which  these  have  produced  in  practise ;  and  an  unreserved 
explanation  of  the  views  and  proceedings  of  the  com- 
munity shall  be  communicated  to  the  government  of  the 
country. 

"  The  constitution  may  be  altered  or  amended  by  a  vote 
of  three-fourths  of  all  the  members  of  the  assembly,  but 
not  until  the  subject  has  been  discussed  at  four  successive 
public  meetings  to  be  held  in  four  successive  weeks." 

This  was  "liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  in  down- 
right earnest,"  wrote  Eobert  Dale  Owen.  "  It  found  favor 
with  that  heterogeneous  collection  of  radicals,  enthusiastic 
devotees  to  principle,  honest  latitudinarians,  and  lazy  theo- 
rists, with  a  sprinkling  of  unprincipled  sharpers  thrown  in." 
Services  to  the  community  were  no  longer  to  be  rewarded 
in  proportion  to  their  worth,  as  under  the  Preliminary 
Society,  but  equal  privileges  and  advantages  were  assured 
to  every  member  of  the  community.  "  I  made  no  opposi- 
tion to  all  this,"  says  Eobert  Dale  Owen.  "  I  had  too  much 
of  my  father^s  all-believing  disposition  to  anticipate  results 
which  any  shrewd,  cool-headed  business  man  might  have 
predicted.    How  rapidly  they  came  upon  us ! " 

111 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE   SOCIAL   SYSTEM   ON"  TKIAL 

Aftek  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  of  the  Com- 
munity of  Equality,  it  was  resolved  that  all  members  of  the 
Preliminary  Society  signing  the  constitution  within  three 
days  could,  with  their  families,  become  members.  Most  of 
the  members  of  the  society  signed  the  document,  but  a  few 
refused  to  do  so.  The  Gazette  failed  to  state  the  exact 
cause  of  the  defection,  simply  announcing  that  "a  new 
community  in  friendly  connection  with  the  first  is  about 
to  be  formed  on  the  estate  of  New  Harmony,  within  a 
few  miles  of  the  town  by  some  respectable  families  who 
were  members  of  the  Preliminary  Society,  but  from  con- 
scientious motives  have  declined  signing  the  new  constitu- 
tion.^' Among  the  members  leaving  at  this  time  was  Cap- 
tain Donald  McDonald,  a  disciple  of  Eobert  Owen,  who  had 
sufficient  faith  in  the  new  principles  to  follow  their  author 
from  Scotland  to  New  Harmony.  McDonald  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Edinburgh  "  Practical  Society ''  of  six 
hundred  families  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  famous 
Orbiston  community.  He  accompanied  Robert  Owen  to 
Ireland  on  one  occasion  when  Mr.  Owen  was  investigating 
the  condition  of  the  poor  in  that  country.  Evidently  Mc- 
Donald's self-esteem  had  been  wounded  in  the  discussions 
over  the  constitution,  for  he  stated  in  a  card  published 
in  the  Gazette  that  he  had  not  been  accorded  "the  con- 
fidence he  had  looked  for  in  the  community."  A  further 
objection  of  his  was  that  he  "  did  not  believe  in  a  written 
constitution."  The  defection  seems  to  have  occurred,  how- 
ever, almost  entirely  on  religious  grounds.    The  new  com- 

112 


THE  SOCIAL   SYSTEM   ON   TRIAL 

munity,  which  was  called  Macluria,  included  some  of  the 
best  members  of  the  Preliminary  Society,  many  of  whom 
were  not  in  sympathy  with  the  religious  latitudinarianism 
of  Kobert  Owen.  Its  constitution  was  largely  modeled 
after  that  of  the  parent  community.  A  unanimous  vote 
was  required  for  admission  of  a  member,  but  any  person 
voted  on  could  remain  one  month  on  trial  for  each  black- 
ball, if  the  number  of  these  did  not  exceed  twenty-five;  a 
larger  number  being  cast  against  the  applicant,  he  might 
remain  one  month  for  every  two  blackballs.  The  legis- 
lative body,  under  the  final  direction  of  the  assembly,  was 
called  "The  Council  of  the  Fathers,"  which  consisted  of 
the  five  oldest  male  members  under  the  age  of  sixty-five 
years.  Women  were  denied  the  privilege  of  voting  in  the 
assembly,  though  accorded  in  all  other  matters  equal  privi- 
leges with  men.  The  system  of  intendents  and  superin- 
tendents contemplated  in  the  constitution  of  the  parent 
community  was  perpetuated  in  the  constitution  of  Ma- 
cluria. 

About  the  15th  of  February,  superintendents  were 
elected  by  the  parent  community  as  follows : 

Agriculture:  Dr.  William  Price. 

Manufactures  and  Mechanics :  J.  K.  Coolidge. 

Literature,  Science,  and  Education:  Thomas  Say. 

General  Economy :  Stedman  Whitwell. 

Commerce:  William  Owen. 

Secretary:  W.  W.  Lewis. 

On  February  17th,  six  new  families  were  admitted,  but 
matters  were  already  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  The  consti- 
tution had  failed  to  work  effectively,  and  the  disorder  was 
so  general  and  so  disastrous  that  on  February  19th,  two 
weeks  after  the  inauguration  of  the  "  permanent  commu- 
nity," the  executive  committee  unanimously  requested 
Mr.  Owen  to  assume  the  directorship  of  the  community 
for  one  year.  Practically  a  dictatorship  was  established, 
although  the  constitution  remained  in  effect.     Mr.  Owen. 

9  113 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

accepted  the  trust,  and  a  brief  period  of  comparative 
tranquillity  and  contentment  ensued. 

On  February  22d,  the  Gazette  stated  that  since  the  adop- 
tion of  the  constitution  the  community  had  been  engaged 
in  organizing  the  several  departments  and  making  such 
arrangements  as  were  deemed  necessary  to  effect  the  pur- 
poses of  association.  "  Numerous  meetings  have  been  held, 
and  various  plans  suggested  to  carry  into  practise  the  com- 
munity principles.  In  a  work  of  such  magnitude,  combi- 
ning so  many  interests  and  such  a  variety  of  feeling,  the 
progress  already  made  affords  a  sure  presage  of  the  har- 
monious and  efficient  cooperation  of  all  the  members. 
Most  of  the  community  officers  have  now  been  elected." 

Early  in  March  the  second  offshooting  society  was 
formed,  under  the  name  of  Feiba  Peveli.  The  name  of 
this  community  is  an  evidence  that  some  of  the  philoso- 
phers who  came  to  New  Harmony  did  little  else  than  to 
evolve  fantastic  schemes.  As  a  sample  of  the  imaginative 
productions  of  one  of  these  oddities — Stedman  Whitwell, 
a  London  architect  and  social  reformer  given  to  writing 
verses  and  planning  community  palaces  on  paper — the 
process  by  which  the  name  of  this  community  was  secured 
is  interesting.  Whitwell  noted  some  of  the  incongruities 
in  American  nomenclature,  and  deplored  the  repetition 
which  was  producing  "  Washingtons  "  and  "  Springfields  " 
in  every  State  in  the  Union.  He  proposed  to  give  each 
locality  a  distinctive  name  by  expressing  in  a  compound 
word  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  the  place,  thus  enabling 
one  to  locate  any  community  geographically  when  the  name 
was  once  known.  Letters  were  proposed  as  substitutes  for 
the  numerals  used  in  expressing  latitude  and  longitude, 
as  follows : 

1234567  8  9  0 

Latitude a     e     i     o     u     y     ee  ei  ie  ou 

Longitude b      dfklmn  p  r  t 

114 


TEE   SOCIAL   SYSTEM   ON   TRIAL 

The  first  part  of  the  town  name  expressed  the  latitude, 
the  second  the  longitude,  by  a  substitution  of  letters  for 
figures  according  to  the  above  table.  The  letter  "  S  "  in- 
serted in  the  latitude  name  denoted  that  it  was  south  lati- 
tude, its  absence  that  it  was  north,  while  "  V  "  indicated 
west  longitude,  its  absence  east  longitude.  Extensive  rules 
for  pronunciation  and  for  overcoming  various  difficulties 
were  given.  According  to  this  system,  Feiba  Peveli  indi- 
cated 38.11  N.,  81.53  W.  Macluria,  38.12  N.,  87.52  W., 
was  to  be  called  Ipad  Evenle;  New  Harmony,  38.11  N., 
87.55  W.,  Ipba  Veinul;  Yellow  Springs,  Green  County, 
Ohio,  the  location  of  an  Owenite  community,  39.48  N., 
83.52  W.,  Irap  Evifle;  Valley  Forge,  near  Philadelphia, 
where  there  was  another  branch  community,  40.7  N.,  75.24 
W.,  Outeon  Eveldo;  Orbiston,  55.34  N.,  4.3  W.,  Uhio 
Vouti ;  New  York,  Otke  Notive ;  Pittsburg,  Otf u  Veitoup ; 
Washington,  Feili  Neivul;  London,  Lafa  Vovutu.  The 
principal  argument  in  favor  of  the  new  system  presented 
by  the  author  was  that  the  name  of  a  neighboring  Indian 
chief,  "  Occoneocoglecococachecachecodungo,"  was  even 
worse  than  some  of  the  effects  produced  by  this  "  rational 
system^'  of  nomenclature. 

The  constitution  of  Feiba  Peveli  contained  a  declaration 
of  principles  almost  identical  with  that  set  forth  in  the 
parent  constitution,  while  the  plan  of  government  coin- 
cided with  that  adopted  by  Macluria.  The  legislative 
power  of  the  community  was  vested  in  its  ''  male  members 
over  the  age  of  twenty-one  years.''  The  executive  duties 
were  vested  in  the  five  eldest  male  members  under  the 
age  of  fifty-five  years,  "  provided  three  of  them  shall  be 
good,  practical  agriculturists."  Managers,  intendents,  and 
clerks  were  to  be  appointed  by  this  council,  which  in  turn 
was  responsible  to  the  assembly.  Any  person  applying  for 
membership  receiving  no  more  than  five  blackballs  might 
reside  in  the  society  as  a  probationary  member  one  month 
for  each  blackball  received.    Arbitration  was  provided  for 

115 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

not  only  between  members  of  the  community,  but  between 
Feiba  Peveli  and  any  other  similar  community.  "  No  debt 
shall  be  contracted/'  the  constitution  declared,  "but  with 
Eobert  Owen  and  William  Maclure,  or  some  society  based 
on  similar  principles  with  our  own ;  and  no  credit  shall  be 
given  but  to  some  society  instituted  on  similar  principles." 

"  Since  our  last  notice  of  the  proceedings  of  the  com- 
munity/' said  the  Gazette  of  March  8,  1826,  "  circum- 
stances have  occurred  which  have  produced  much  ani- 
mated and  interesting  debate.  All  minds  seem  now  to 
comprehend  the  true  grounds  of  future  cooperation,  and 
all  hearts  have  united  in  claiming  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Owen's 
experience  and  knowledge  in  reducing  to  practise  the  prin- 
ciples which  form  the  basis  of  our  association.  General 
satisfaction  and  individual  contentment  have  taken  the 
place  of  suspense  and  uncertainty.  Under  the  sole  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Owen  the  most  gratifying  anticipations  of  the 
future  may  be  indulged  in,  for  knowledge  and  experience 
are  the  only  safe  guides  through  the  intricacies  of  the 
untried  system." 

Considerable  difficulty  had  arisen  from  a  crowded  popu- 
lation, but  the  formation  of  new  communities  began  to 
relieve  the  congestion.  Some  inconvenience,  the  admin- 
istration declared,  must  be  endured  until  suitable  accom- 
modation could  be  procured  for  the  members.  On  March 
22d,  the  Gazette  said:  "  The  friends  of  the  new  social 
system  will  learn  with  pleasure  that  we  are  steadily  advan- 
cing toward  the  firm  final  establishment  of  the  principles 
of  our  association.  It  has  been  seen  and  sensibly  felt  that 
while  we  have  been  discussing  the  abstract  ideas,  while  we 
have  been  in  vain  trying  to  reconcile  contrary  and  clashing 
opinions,  we  have  neglected  the  practical  means  within  our 
reach  which  alone  can  bind  man  to  his  fellow  men.  In 
short,  we  have  discovered  that  our  energies  have  been 
wasted  in  fruitless  efforts,  each  one  endeavoring  to  con- 
vince others  that  he  alone  possessed  the  power  of  unlocking 

116 


TEE   SOCIAL   SYSTEM   ON   TRIAL 

the  pleasures  of  social  life.  This  error  is  happily  dispelled. 
By  the  indefatigable  attention  of  Mr.  Owen,  a  degree  of 
order,  of  regularity,  of  system,  has  been  introduced  into 
every  department  of  business  which  promises  increase  and 
permanency.  The  town  now  presents  a  scene  of  active 
and  steady  industry,  the  effects  of  which  are  visible  and 
palpable.  The  society  is  gradually  becoming  really  as  well 
as  ostensibly  a  community  of  equality  based  on  equal  rights 
and  equal  duties  of  all.  Our  streets  no  longer  present 
groups  of  idle  talkers,  and  each  one  is  busily  engaged  in 
the  occupation  he  has  chosen  for  his  employment.  Our 
public  meetings,  instead  of  being  the  arena  of  contending 
orators,  have  assumed  a  different  character,  and  are  now 
places  of  business,  where  familiar  consultations  are  held, 
and  the  most  eflBcient  measures  are  adopted  for  the  com- 
forts of  life  for  all  the  members.  No  vain  disputes  grate 
upon  the  ear  of  patient  industry,  and  all  seem  strongly  im- 
pressed with  the  importance  of  applying  their  powers  to 
realize  the  object  of  cooperative  association.  During  the 
past  week  there  has  been  much  done  in  this  way,  and  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  progress  will  not  be  impeded 
by  idleness,  listlessness,  and  erroneous  views  of  our  situa- 
tion. It  would  indeed  be  strange  if  the  experience  gained 
by  the  greater  part  of  the  population  during  eleven  months' 
schooling,  with  the  aid  of  Mr.  Owen's  practical  knowledge' 
for  the  past  eight  weeks,  should  be  lost  upon  us."  On  April 
12th,  the  Gazette  declared  that  "the  formation  of  com- 
munities is  now  pretty  generally  understood  among  us,  and 
is  entered  upon  like  a  matter  of  ordinary  business.  The 
same  thing  will  probably  occur  throughout  the  country." 

Evidently  the  administration  had  begun  to  realize  the 
impossibility  of  unifying  the  interests  of  any  great  number 
of  persons  associated  in  a  community.  The  administration 
organ  stated  early  in  April  that  no  more  than  twenty  to 
thirty  persons  should  form  the  basis  of  a  community,  for 
if  the  number  be  greater,  the  greater  the  chance  of  the 

117 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT  \ 

members  being  uncongenial.    As  far  as  possible  the  opera-  i 

tions  of  the  society  should  be  very  simple  and  upon  an  ; 

agricultural  basis.    From  this  the  communities  could  pro-  i 

ceed  to  mechanical  operations  at  a  later  date.     The  com-  \ 

munity  should  first  make  itself  useful,  and  then  proceed  I 

to  the  higher  development  of  community  life,  such  as  I 

education,  etc.    "  No  attempt  to  combine  an  unintelligible  i 
mass  of  discordant  interests  can  result  favorably  unless  it 

be  under  the  direction  of  a  mind,  disposition,  and  talent  | 

long  exerted  in  similar  combinations."  .; 

The  pages  of  the  Gazette  from  this  time  on  continue  j 
to  reveal  the  difficulties  encountered  by  the  projectors  of 

the  social  experiment  at  New  Harmony.     The  numerous  j 

suggestions  of  new  plans  made  by  correspondents  through  ! 

the   Gazette  are   evidence   of  considerable   dissatisfaction  j 

among  the  community  membership.     "  A  Friendly  Spec-  i 

tator  "  in  the  Gazette  of  April  19,  1826,  expressed  a  belief  \ 

that  "  the  chief  good  of  the  community  system  is  that  it  de-  | 
stroys  the  love  of  show  and  luxury.    It  also  economizes  time 

and  enables  a  man  to  pay  attention  to  his  higher  nature."  > 

"  But,"  continued  the  writer,  "  it  appears  doubtful  to  me  i 

whether  human  nature  can  be  brought  to  such  moral  per-  : 

fection  as  to  execute  the  social  system  entirely.    There  must  \ 

be  a  controlling  motive  to  urge  men  to  physical  exertion.  ' 

He  now  has  that  in  the  possession  of  all  that  his  work  can  \ 

give  him.    In  the  social  system  you  must  make  his  disposi-  ' 

tion  so  virtuous  as  to  make  him  feel  his  responsibility.  Can  ; 

you  do  this  ?  "    While  a  man  gains  in  moral  freedom  and  j 

independence  under  the  new  system,  this  correspondent  i 

remarked,  he  loses  in  personal  liberty.     He  suggested  that  : 

extra  compensation  be  given  for  extra  work,  but  that  no  ' 

one  be  allowed  to  spend  his  money  to  the  loss  of  society;  i 

each  person  to  do  a  fixed  amount  of  work  for  his  subsist-  ; 

ence,  and  that  no  one  be  allowed  at  table  until  that  assign-  ! 

ment  of  labor  had  been  performed.    "  You  have  indolence  i 

or  the  love  of  ease  among  you  at  New  Harmony."    There  ; 

118  i 


TEE   SOCIAL   SYSTEM   ON   TRIAL 

should  be  a  ■uniformity  of  dress  and  diet,  he  declared,  but 
each  person  should  be  allowed  to  choose  his  occupation; 
all  children  under  eleven  years  of  age  should  be  busied 
alone  with  their  education ;  at  eleven  the  child  should  per- 
form one-seventh  of  a  day's  work ;  at  twelve,  two-sevenths, 
and  so  on  until  at  seventeen  the  full  amount  should  be 
demanded  from  all. 

The  administration  about  this  time  published  some 
^^  considerations  "  for  those  who  desired  to  unite  under  the 
new  system,  as  follows: 

(1)  It  will  be  necessary  to  sink  individual  interests,  and 
(2)  to  discard  all  useless  and  vexatious  regulations;  (3) 
persuasion,  instead  of-  force,  must  be  employed;  (4)  there 
must  be  no  abuse,  growling,  or  loud  talking,  and  (5)  no 
grumbling,  carping,  or  murmuring  against  the  work  of 
other  individuals;  those  who  shirk  their  work  are  deserving 
of  pity;  (6)  distinctions  in  eating  and  drinking  among  the 
members  must  be  discarded;  (7)  children  must  be  excluded 
from  the  dining-room  during  meals;  adult  members  should 
not  stalk  about  the  dining-hall  during  meals;  (8)  the  in- 
temperate must  never  be  abused;  (9)  when  individual  mem- 
bers are  "  affected  with  the  disease  of  laziness  "  the  utmost 
forbearance  will  be  necessary;  (10)  criticism  should  not  be 
resented;  (11)  cleanliness  and  regularity  must  be  enforced; 
(12)  "  no  anger  ought  to  be  felt  against  the  female  members 
upon  their  aversion  to  the  work  of  cooperation;  or  when 
they  brawl,  quarrel,  or  indulge  in  loud  talk."  The  chil- 
dren, however,  should  be  taught  better.  There  is  a  strong 
undercurrent  of  suggestion  in  all  this  as  to  evils  evidently 
existing  in  the  community. 

In  April  the  community  was  disturbed  by  negotiations 
said  to  be  going  on  for  the  purchase  of  the  estate  as  private 
property.  An  attempt  was  made  to  divide  the  town  into 
several  communities.  This  Mr.  Owen  resisted,  but  selected 
twenty-five  men  as  a  nucleus,  this  body  to  elect  new  mem- 
bers,   subject   to   veto   by   Mr.  Owen.      Three   grades  of 

119 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

membership  were  proposed:  full  members,  probationary 
members,  and  persons  on  trial.  "  The  community  was  to 
be  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Owen,  until  two-thirds  of  the 
members  should  think  fit  to  govern  themselves,  provided 
the  time  was  not  less  than  one  year." 

In  the  Gazette  of  May  17,  1826,  appeared  a  contribu- 
tion signed  "  M.,"  complaining  that  "  industrious  members 
have  been  compelled  to  experience  the  unpleasant  sensa- 
tion of  working  for  others  who  are  either  unwilling  or  un- 
able to  do  their  share  of  the  labor.  An  effort  has  been 
made  to  bring  about  a  change  in  this,"  stated  the  contrib- 
utor, "  by  individual  reports  of  production  and  making 
public  the  number  of  hours  each  was  occupied  in  the  day, 
the  practise  of  which  was  rather  invidious,  and  difficult  to 
be  executed  impartially ;  but  even  if  it  were  possible  to  get 
correct  returns,  it  was  liable  to  work  injustice,  as  one  work- 
man might  do  as  much  in  one  hour  as  another  might  in 
four."  The  correspondent  suggested  that  it  would  be  bet- 
ter to  divide  the  members  of  the  community  into  occupa- 
tions, or  departments,  fixing  the  amount  of  work  to  be  done 
by  each  occupation,  and  allowing  the  managers  to  distribute 
this  amount  of  work  among  the  individuals  of  each  com- 
munity. The  quality  and  quantity  of  the  work  would  be 
inspected  by  impartial  judges.  If  it  were  impossible  for  the 
occupations  to  work  together,  they  might  be  divided  into 
separate  communities,  and  they  might  federate  into  a  joint 
community.  "  The  population  must  be  some  time  accus- 
tomed to  the  social  system  to  be  convinced  that  those  who 
work  with  their  heads  are  as  productive  as  those  who  work 
with  their  hands,  and  it  is  equally  difficult  to  reconcile  a 
mechanic  at  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  or  two  dollars  a  day 
to  putting  himself  on  an  equality  with  the  agriculturist  at 
a  quarter  of  a  dollar  a  day."  The  success  of  commu- 
nity Number  2,  the  members  of  which  had  been  unable 
to  work  harmoniously  with  the  original  community,  but 
who  had  progressed  admirably  since  the  separation,  was 

120 


THE   SOCIAL   SYSTEM    ON   TRIAL 

pointed  to  as  an  indication  that  the  change  suggested 
would  be  advisable.  A  division  into  twenty  or  thirty 
societies  was  therefore  suggested  "  as  the  best,  and  per- 
haps the  only  way  to  apportion  the  labor  either  justly 
or  accurately,  and  to  reduce  the  responsibility  of  pay- 
ments within  the  sphere  of  the  previous  habits  of  cal- 
culation; education  and  amusements  to  remain  upon  the 
same  footing  as  before/' 

In  the  spring  of  1826  the  Constitution  of  the  Coopera- 
tive Association  of  Wainborough,  Illinois,  modeled  after 
the  New  Harmony  plan,  was  printed  in  the  Gazette.  This 
community  was  agricultural,  and  "based  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  union  of  labor  and  capital."  Food  and  clothing 
would  be  supplied  to  members  of  the  society.  An  equal 
division  of  the  proceeds  of  the  labor  and  capital  of  the 
society  should  be  made  annually,  after  interest  charges  had 
been  met,  including  a  payment  of  four  per  cent  on  the 
advances  of  members  contributing  capital,  ten  per  cent  of 
the  profit  to  be  set  apart  for  the  purpose  of  paying  the 
indebtedness  of  the  society.  After  fourteen  years  members 
of  the  society  should  have  a  claim  upon  it  for  the  full  value 
of  property  or  money  contributed.  The  direction  of  the 
business  affairs  of  the  community  was  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  committee  of  three. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Gazette,  writing  under  date  of 
May  24,  1826,^  suggested  names  for  prospective  societies, 
"  as  the  sanguine  friends  of  the  cooperative  system  believe 
that  in  a  few  years  hundreds,  and  even  thousands,  may  be 
founded."  Among  the  names  offered  for  consideration 
were  Lovedale,  Peace  Glen,  Everblest,  New  Duty,  Phi- 
losophy, Glee,  Lovely,  Voltaire,  Elysium,  Olympus,  Pla- 
tonea,  Socrates,  Utopia,  Confucia,  and  Powhatan. 

C.  S.  Kaffinesque,  writing  from  Lexington  in  April, 
1826,  to  WiUiam  Maclure,  outlined  "  a  plan  for  cooperative 
association,"  and  the  letter  was  published  in  the  Gazette. 
"Money,"  he  said,  "is  no  longer  to  be  a  medium  of  ex- 

121 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

change,  but  stocks,  rendered  divisible  at  pleasure  ad  libitum 
according  to  the  principle  of  my  patent  divitial  invention. 
.  .  .  Any  number  of  persons,  from  five  to  five  thousand, 
may  associate  themselves  into  an  organization;  they  to 
select  trustees  of  the  deposited  stocks  or  sums  invested. 
They  shall  place  a  value  upon  the  property  merged  into  the 
association.  The  product  of  material  labor  will  also  be  re- 
ceived in  store  and  in  kind,  while  mental  service  done  will 
be  estimated  according  to  their  need,  purposes,  or  utility 
to  the  association.  The  other  forms  of  income  will  be 
received,  appraisers  to  be  appointed  to  determine  the  ex- 
change value  of  everything.  As  soon  as  any  value  is  de- 
posited, there  shall  be  given  to  the  depositor,  not  by  name, 
a  certificate  or  certificates  of  the  same  upon  the  principle 
of  the  patent  divitial  invention,  divisible  into  any  required 
amount,  and  exchangeable  into  any  other  required  amount, 
transferable  and  available  by  the  bearer  for  their  nominal 
value  in  dollars  and  cents.  When  any  profitable  value  is 
deposited  the  certificates  will  bear  four  or  five  per  cent 
interest.  .  .  .  These  certificates  shall  be  accepted  in 
payment  of  accounts  at  the  store,  for  rent  or  any  other 
purpose.  Everything  will  be  exchanged  at  cost,  but  a  com- 
mission of  from  two  to  five  per  cent  shall  be  deducted  to 
meet  the  general  expenses  of  the  society.  The  profits  will 
be  used  for  the  benefit  of  the  sick,  the  infirm,  and  other 
members  unable  to  labor.  Instruction  and  amusement  will 
be  provided,  to  be  paid  for  in  deposit  tickets.  General 
meetings  and  mutual  intercourse  will  be  provided,  and  the 
members  shall  consider  themselves  a  great  family.  All 
books  shall  be  deposited  and  considered  as  a  public  library. 
Although  the  mainspring  of  this  scheme  is  my  divitial 
invention,  which  I  have  patented  in  order  to  give  to  it 
a  higher  legal  claim,  it  is  my  intention  to  allow  these 
societies  to  use  it  at  such  a  trifling  rate  as  benevolent  insti- 
tutions, that  I  hope  no  selfish  views  will  be  ascribed  to  n>r! 
on  that  score." 

122 


CHAPTEK   XIII 

THE   DUKE   OF   SAXE-WEIMAR   AT   NEW   HARMONY 

New  Haemony  became  an  important  point  on  the 
itinerary  of  European  travelers,  as  well  as  a  rendezvous 
of  American  scientists,  early  in  1826.  Count  Bernhard,  of 
Weimar,  Saxony,  and  Eisenach,  better  known  as  the  Duke 
of  Saxe-"Weimar,  who  made  a  tour  of  this  country  in  1825 
and  1826,  and  recorded  his  impressions  in  a  published  vol- 
ume, gives  a  detailed  account  of  what  he  saw  in  New  Har- 
mony, where  he  arrived  on  April  13,  1826.  Count  Bern- 
hard  states  that  he  found  Eobert  Owen  and  his  ideas 
unpopular  in  the  Eastern  States,  where  he  had  created  an 
unfavorable  impression  by  publishing  a  proclamation  to  the 
Americans  on  his  arrival  at  New  York,  in  which  he  told 
them  that  "  among  many  virtues  they  possessed  great 
faults,"  among  which  he  alluded  to  ill-directed  propensity 
to  religious  feelings,  and  proposed  himself  as  their  re- 
former in  this  respect.  One  public  man  had  told  Mr.  Owen 
that  he  considered  his  intellect  deranged.  He  had  heard  fa- 
vorable opinions  of  Mr.  Owen  expressed  by  those  who  knew 
him  well,  and  with  these  conflicting  estimates  of  the  man,  he 
came  to  New  Harmony  "  with  the  utmost  expectation  and 
curiosity  to  become  acquainted  with  a  man  of  such  extraor- 
dinary sentiments.  In  the  tavern,"  wrote  the  duke,  "  I  ac- 
costed a  man,  very  plainly  dressed,  about  fifty  years  of  age, 
of  rather  low  stature,  who  entered  into  a  conversation  with 
me  concerning  the  situation  of  the  place,  and  the  disordered 
state  in  which  I  would  find  everything  where  all  was  newly 

123 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

established.  When  I  asked  the  man  how  long  before  Mr. 
Owen  would  be  there,  he  announced  himself  to  me,  to  my 
surprise,  as  Mr.  Owen.  He  expressed  pleasure  at  my  visit, 
and  offered  to  show  me  everything  and  explain  whatever 
remained  without  explanation."  Mr.  Owen  outlined  his 
plans  for  improving  the  place,  which  included  the  removal 
of  the  cabins  and  the  fences,  "  so  that  the  whole  would 
present  the  appearance  of  a  public  park,  in  which  the 
houses  should  be  scattered  about."  Mr.  Owen  first  took  his 
distinguished  guest  to  the  old  Rappite  church,  "  the 
wooden  building  provided  with  a  steeple  and  a  clock. 
This  church  was  at  present  occupied  by  joiners'  and  shoe- 
makers' shops  in  which  the  boys  were  instructed  in  these 
mechanical  arts."  Count  Bemhard  then  visited  the  old 
Rapp  mansion,  "  now  occupied  by  Mr.  Maclure  as  a  resi- 
dence and  office.  .  .  .  Mr.  Owen,  on  the  contrary, 
contented  himself  with  a  small  apartment  in  the  same 
tavern  where  I  lodged." 

The  duke  was  introduced  to  Mr.  Owen's  two  eldest  sons 
(William  and  Robert),  "pupils  of  Fellenberg,  who  is 
greatly  respected  here."  ..."  Afterward  Mr.  Owen 
made  me  acquainted  with  Mr.  Lewis,  secretary  of  the  soci- 
ety, from  Virginia,  and  a  relative  of  the  great  Washington. 
He  was  already  pretty  well  advanced  in  years,  and  appeared 
to  have  united  himself  with  the  society  from  liberal  princi- 
ples. Another  acquaintance  I  made  was  with  Mr.  Jennings, 
of  Philadelphia,  a  young  man  who  was  educated  as  a  clergy- 
man, and  had  left  the  profession  to  follow  this  course  of 
life.  He  intended,  nevertheless,  to  leave  this  place  and  go 
back  to  Philadelphia;  many  other  members  have  the  same 
design,  and  I  can  hardly  believe  the  society  will  have  a  long 
duration.  Enthusiasm,  which  soon  abandons  its  subjects, 
as  well  as  the  itch  for  novelty,  had  contributed  much  to 
the  formation  of  this  society.  In  spite  of  the  principles  of 
equality  which  they  recognized,  it  taxes  the  feelings  to  live 
on  the  same  footing  with  others  indiscriminately,  and  eat 

124 


THE   DUKE    OF   SAXE-WEIMAB 

with  them  at  the  same  table.  The  society  consisted,  as  I 
was  informed,  of  about  one  thousand  members;  at  a  dis- 
tance of  about  two  miles  are  founded  two  new  communities. 
Until  the  common  table  shall  be  established,  according  to 
the  fundamental  constitution  of  the  society,  the  members 
are  placed  in  four  boarding-houses,  where  they  must  live 
very  frugally.  Some  of  the  most  turbulent,  with  an  Irish- 
man who  wore  a  long  beard,  wished  to  leave  the  society 
immediately  to  go  to  Mexico,  there  to  settle  themselves, 
but  where  their  subsistence  will  be  procured  with  much 
difficulty. 

"  In  the  evening,  Mr.  Owen  took  me  to  a  concert  in  a 
sort  of  nondescript  building.  Most  of  the  members  of  the 
society  were  present."  The  duke  describes  a  concert  by  a 
^'  surprisingly  good  "  orchestra,  and  male  and  female  solo- 
ists, with  several  recitations.  "  Mr.  Jennings  recited  Lord 
Byron^s  stanzas  on  his  wife,  very  good.  .  .  .  Be- 
tween the  two  parts  of  the  concert,  the  orchestra  played 
a  march;  each  gentleman  gave  a  lady  his  arm  and  a  prom- 
enade took  place,  resembling  a  polonaise,  with  pretty 
figures,  sometimes  in  two  couples,  sometimes  in  four;  two 
ladies  in  the  middle,  the  gentlemen  separated  from  the 
ladies,  then  again  all  together.  The  concert  closed  with  a 
lively  cotillion.  I  was,  on  the  whole,  amused.  .  .  . 
This  general  evening  amusement  takes  place  several  times 
a  week,  besides  which  there  is  on  Tuesday  evening  a  gen- 
eral ball.  There  is  a  particular  costume  adopted  for  the 
society.  That  for  the  man  consists  of  white  pantaloons, 
buttoned  over  a  boy's  jacket,  made  of  light  material,  with- 
out a  collar;  that  of  the  woman  of  a  coat  reaching  to  the 
knee,  and  pantaloons  such  as  little  girls  wear  among  us. 
These  dresses  are  not  universally  adopted,  but  they  have  a 
good  appearance.  All  the  men  did  not  participate  in  the 
dance,  i.  e,,  the  lower  classes,  but  read  newspapers  which 
were  scattered  over  the  side-tables. 

"We  went  to  Eapp's  distillery.     It  will  be  removed 

125 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

altogether.  Mr.  Owen  has  forbidden  distilling,  as  well  as 
the  use  of  ardent  spirits.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  Irish- 
men here  find  opportunities  of  getting  whisky  and  fuddling 
themselves,  from  the  flatboats  that  stop  here. 

*^  The  greater  number  of  the  young  girls  whom  we 
chanced  to  meet  at  home  were  found  employed  in  plaiting 
straw  hats.  I  became  acquainted  with  Madame  F.,  a  native 
of  St.  Petersburg.  She  married  an  American  merchant, 
but  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  her  husband  three  days  after 
marriage,  and  as  she  was  somewhat  eccentric  and  sentimen- 
tal, quickly  became  attached  to  Mr.  Owen's  system.  She 
told  me,  however,  in  German,  that  she  found  herself  egre- 
giously  deceived,  that  the  highly  vaunted  equality  was  not 
altogether  to  her  taste;  that  some  of  the  society  were  too 
low,  and  that  the  table  was  below  all  criticism.  The  good 
lady  appeared  to  be  about  to  run  from  one  extreme  to  the 
other,  for  she  added  that  in  the  summer  she  would  go  to  a 
Shaker  establishment  near  Vincennes. 

"  I  renewed  acquaintance  here  with  Mr.  Say,  a  distin- 
guished naturalist  from  Philadelphia,  to  whom  I  had  been 
introduced  there,  but  unfortunately  he  had  found  himself 
embarrassed  in  his  fortune,  and  was  obliged  to  come  here 
as  a  friend  of  Mr.  Maclure.  The  gentleman  appeared  quite 
comical  in  the  costume  of  the  society,  with  his  hands  cov- 
ered with  hard  lumps  and  blisters,  occasioned  by  the 
unusual  labor  he  was  obliged  to  undertake  in  the  garden. 

"  In  the  evening  I  went  for  a  walk  in  the  streets,  and 
met  several  ladies  of  the  society,  who  rested  from  the  labors 
of  the  day.  Madame  F.  was  among  them,  to  whose  com- 
plaints I  had  listened.  I  accompanied  the  ladies  to  a  dan- 
cing assembly  which  was  held  in  the  kitchen  of  one  of  the 
boarding-houses.  I  observed  that  this  was  only  an  hour  of 
instruction  for  the  unpractised  in  dancing,  and  that  there 
was  some  restraint  on  account  of  my  presence ;  from  polite- 
ness I  went  away  and  remained  at  home  the  rest  of  the 
evening.     .     .     . 

126 


TEE   DUKE    OF   8AXE-WEIMAB 

"  Mr.  Owen  took  me  into  one  of  the  newly  built  houses, 
in  which  the  married  members  of  the  Society  are  to  live. 
It  consisted  of  two  stories,  in  each  two  chambers  and  two 
alcoves,  with  the  requisite  ventilators.  The  cellar  of  the 
house  is  to  contain  a  heating  apparatus  to  heat  the  whole 
with  warm  air.  Each  family  will  have  a  chamber  and  an 
alcove,  which  will  be  sufficient,  as  the  little  children  will 
be  in  the  nursery  and  the  larger  at  school.  They  will  not 
require  kitchens,  as  all  are  to  eat  in  common.  Unmarried 
women  will  live  together,  as  will  also  unmarried  men,  in 
the  manner  of  the  Moravian  brothers. 

"  I  had  a  long  conversation  with  Mr.  Owen  relative  to 
his  system  and  his  expectations.  He  looks  forward  to 
nothing  else  than  to  remodel  the  world  entirely;  to  root 
out  all  crime;  to  abolish  punishment;  to  create  similar  views 
and  similar  wants,  and  in  this  manner  to  abolish  all  dis- 
sension and  warfare.  When  his  system  of  education  shall 
be  brought  into  connection  with  the  great  progress  made 
in  mechanics,  which  is  daily  increasing,  every  man  can 
then,  as  he  thinks,  provide  his  simpler  necessaries  for  him- 
self, and  trade  will  cease  entirely.  I  expressed  a  doubt  of 
the  practicability  of  this  system  in  Europe,  and  even  in  the 
United  States.  He  was  too  unalterably  convinced  of  the 
result  to  admit  the  slightest  room  for  doubt.  It  grieved 
me  to  see  that  Mr.  Owen  Should  be  so  infatuated  by  his 
passion  for  universal  improvement  as  to  believe  and  assert 
that  he  is  about  to  reform  the  whole  world,  and  yet  that 
almost  every  member  of  his  society  with  whom  I  talked, 
acknowledged  that  he  was  deceived  in  his  expectations,  and 
expressed  their  opinion  that  Mr.  Owen  had  commenced  on 
too  grand  a  scale,  and  had  admitted  too  many  members 
without  the  requisite  selection. 

"  I  went  with  Dr.  McNamee  to  the  newly  established 
communities,  Number  2,  Macluria;  the  other  lately  founded. 
Number  3.  Number  2  lies  two  miles  distant  from  New 
Harmony,  at  the  entrance  to  the  forest,  which  will  be 

127 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

cleared  to  make  the  land  fit  for  cultivation.  The  settle- 
ment, which  was  established  about  four  weeks  ago,  con- 
sists of  nine  log  houses.  The  inhabitants  number  about 
eighty.  They  are  mostly  backwoodsmen  with  their  fam- 
ilies, who  have  separated  from  community  Number  1  in 
New  Harmony  because  no  religion  is  allowed  there,  and 
these  people  desire  to  hold  their  prayer-meetings  undis- 
puted. The  fields  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  community 
were,  of  course,,  very  new.  Community  Number  3  con- 
sisted of  English  country  people,  who  formed  a  new  asso- 
ciation, as  the  cosmopolitanism  of  New  Harmony  did  not 
suit  them;  they  left  the  colony  planted  by  Mr.  Birkbeck  at 
English  Prairie,  about  twenty  miles  hence  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Wabash,  after  the  unfortunate  death  of  that 
gentleman,  and  came  here.  This  is  a  proof  that  there  are 
two  evils  that  strike  at  the  root  of  the  young  societies:  one 
is  a  sectarian  or  intolerant  spirit;  the  other  natural  preju- 
dice. 

"  In  the  evening  there  was  a  general  meeting  in  the 
large  hall.  It  opened  with  music;  then  one  of  the  mem- 
bers, an  English  architect  of  talent,  who  came  to  the  United 
States  with  Mr.  Owen,  whose  confidence  he  appeared  to 
possess,  and  was  here  at  the  head  of  the  architectural  de- 
partment, read  some  extracts  from  the  newspapers,  upon 
which  Mr.  Owen  made  a  very  good  commentary;  for  ex- 
ample, upon  the  extension  and  improvement  of  the  steam- 
engine,  upon  its  adaptation  to  navigation  and  the  advan- 
tages resulting  therefrom.  He  lost  himself  in  his  theories, 
however,  when  he  expatiated  on  an  article  which  related  to 
the  experiments  which  .have  been  made  with  the  Perkins 
steam-gun.  During  these  lectures  I  made  my  observation 
on  the  much-vaunted  equality,  as  some  tatterdemalions 
stretched  themselves  on  the  platform  close  by  Mr.  Owen. 
The  better-educated  members  kept  themselves  together, 
and  took  no  notice  of  the  others.  I  remarked  also  that 
members  belonging  to  the  higher  classes  of  society  had  put 

128 


THE   DUKE    OF   S AXE-WEIMAR 

on  the  new  costume,  and  made  a  party  by  themselves. 
After  the  lecture  the  band  played;  each  gentleman  took  a 
lady  and  marched  with  her  around  the  room.  Lastly,  a 
cotillion  was  danced;  the  ladies  were  then  escorted  home, 
and  each  retired  to  his  own  quarters. 

"I  went  early  on  the  following  morning  (Sunday)  to 
the  assembly-room.  The  meeting  was  opened  by  music. 
After  this,  Mr.  Owen  stated  a  proposition,  in  the  discussion 
of  which  he  spoke  of  the  advance  made  by  the  society;  of 
the  location  of  another  community  at  Valley  Forge,  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  another  in  the  State  of  New  York.  A 
classification  of  the  members  was  spoken  of  afterward. 
They  were  to  be  separated  into  three  classes:  first,  of  such 
as  undertook  to  be  security  for  the  sums  due  Mr.  Owen 
and  Mr.  Maclure  (that  is  for  the  amount  paid  to  Eapp  and 
so  expended  as  a  pledge  to  be  redeemed  by  the  society), 
and  who,  if  desirous  to  leave  the  society,  must  give  six 
months'  previous  notice ;  secondly,  such  as,  after  a  notice  of 
fourteen  days,  can  depart;  lastly,  those  who  are  received 
only  on  trial. 

"  Afterward  I  visited  Mr.  Maclure,  and  received  from 
him  the  French  papers.  Mr.  Maclure  is  old  and  childless, 
was  never  married,  and  intends,  it  is  reported,  to  leave  his 
property  to  the  society.  Afterward  I  went  with  Mr.  Owen 
and  some  of  the  ladies  of  the  society  for  a  walk  to  the  cut- 
off, as  it  is  called,  of  the  Wabash,  where  this  river  has 
formed  a  new  channel  and  an  island,  which  contains  about 
thirty-five  hundred  acres  of  the  best  land,  at  present,  how- 
ever, inundated.  There  is  here  a  substantial  grist-mill 
erected  by  Mr.  Eapp,  which  is  said  to  contain  a  very  good 
set  of  machinery,  but  we  could  not  reach  it  on  account  of  the 
water.  ...  In  the  evening  I  paid  visits  to  some  ladies, 
and  saw  the  philosophy  of  a  life  of  equality  put  to  a  severe 
test  with  one  of  them.  She  is  named  Virginia,  from  Phila- 
delphia; is  very  young  and  pretty;  was  delicately  brought 
up,  and  appears  to  have  taken  refuge  here  on  account  of 

10  129 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

an  unhappy  attachment.  A\Tiile  she  was  singing,  and  play- 
ing very  well  on  the  piano,  she  was  told  that  the  milking 
of  the  cows  was  her  duty,  and  that  they  were  waiting. 
Almost  in  tears,  she  betook  herself  to  this  servile  employ- 
ment, execrating  the  social  system  and  its  so-much-prized 
equality.  After  the  cows  were  milked,  in  doing  which  the 
young  girl  was  trod  on  by  one  and  kicked  by  another,  I 
joined  an  aquatic  party  with  the  young  ladies  and  some 
young  philosophers  in  a  very  good  boat  upon  the  inundated 
meadows  along  the  Wabash.  The  evening  was  beautiful, 
it  was  moonlight,  and  the  air  was  very  mild;  the  beautiful 
Miss  Virginia  forgot  her  stable  experiences  and  regaled  us 
with  her  sweet  voice.  Somewhat  later  we  collected  at 
house  Number  2,  appointed  for  the  schoolhouse,  where  all 
the  young  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  quality  assembled. 
"We  amused  ourselves  during  the  whole  remainder  of  the 
evening  dancing  cotillions  and  waltzes,  and  with  such  ani- 
mation as  rendered  it  quite  lively.  New  figures  had  been 
introduced  among  the  cotillions,  among  which  was  one 
called  the  New  Social  System.  Several  of  the  ladies  made 
objections  to  dancing  on  Sunday;  we  thought,  however,  that 
in  this  sanctuary  of  philosophy  such  prejudice  should  be 
entirely  discarded,  and  our  arguments,  as  well  as  the  in- 
clinations of  the  ladies,  gained  the  victory.     .     .     . 

"  I  was  invited  to  dinner  in  house  Number  4.  Some 
gentlemen  had  been  out  hunting  and  brought  home  a  wild 
turkey,  which  must  be  consumed.  The  turkey  formed  the 
whole  dinner.  Upon  the  whole,  I  can  not  complain  either 
of  an  overloaded  stomach,  or  a  headache  from  the  wine. 
The  living  was  frugal  in  the  strictest  sense.  In  the  eve- 
ning I  visited  Mr.  Maclure  and  Madame  Fretageot,  living 
in  the  same  house.  She  is  a  Frenchwoman,  and  formerly 
kept  a  boarding-school  in  Philadelphia,  and  is  called 
'  Mother '  by  all  the  young  girls  here.  The  handsomest 
and  most  polished  of  the  female  world  here.  Miss  Lucy  Sis- 
tare  and  Miss  Virginia,  were  under  her  care.     The  cows 

130 


THE   DUKE   OF   SAXE-WEIMAR 

were  milked  this  evening  when  I  came  in,  and  therefore 
we  could  hear  their  performance  on  the  pianoforte,  and 
their  charming  voices,  in  peace  and  quiet.  Later  in  the 
evening  we  went  to  the  kitchen  of  Number  3,  where  there 
was  a  ball.  The  young  ladies  of  the  better  class  kept  them- 
selves in  a  corner  under  Madame  Fretageot's  protection, 
and  formed  a  little  aristocratic  clique.  To  prevent  all  pos- 
sible partialities,  the  gentlemen,  as  well  as  the  ladies,  drew 
numbers  for  the  cotillions,  and  thus  apportioned  them 
equitably.  Our  young  ladies  turned  up  their  noses  at  the 
democratic  dancers  who  often  in  this  way  fell  to  their  lot. 
Although  every  one  was  pleased  upon  the  whole,  they  sepa- 
rated at  ten  o'clock,  as  it  is  necessary  to  arise  early  here. 
Madame  Fretageot  and  her  two  pupils  I  accompanied  home, 
and  spent  some  time  in  conversation  with  Mr.  Maclure  on 
his  travels  in  Europe,  which  w^ere  taken  with  mineralogical 
views.  The  architect,  Mr.  Whitwell,  showed  me  the  plan 
of  this  establishment.  I  admired  the  judicious  and  eco- 
nomical arrangement  for  warming  and  ventilating  the 
buildings,  as  well  as  the  kitchens  and  laundries. 

"  On  the  following  day  I  received  a  visit  from  one  of 
the  German  patriots  of  the  name  of  Schmidt,  who  had 
entered  the  society.  He  had  been  a  first  lieutenant  in  the 
Prussian  artillery  at  Erfurt.  He  appeared  to  have  engaged 
in  one  of  the  political  conspiracies  there,  and  to  have  de- 
serted. ^Ir.  Owen  brought  him  from  England  last  autumn 
as  a  servant.  He  was  now  a  member  of  the  society,  and  had 
charge  of  the  cattle.  His  fine  visions  of  freedom  seemed 
to  be  very  much  lower,  for  he  presented  himself  to  me,  and 
his  father  to  Mr.  Huygens,  as  servants.  Toward  evening 
Mr.  Applegarth  arrived.  He  had  presided  over  the  school 
in  New  Lanark,  and  was  to  organize  one  here  when  prac- 
ticable. ...  In  the  evening  there  was  a  ball  in  the 
large  assembly-room.  .  .  .  There  was  a  particular 
place  marked  off  for  the  children  to  dance  in,  in  the  center 
of  the  hall,  where  they  could  gambol  about  without  run- 

131 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

ning  between  the  legs  of  the  grown  persons.  .  .  .  We 
took  a  walk  to  community  Number  3.  The  work  on  the 
houses  had  made  little  progress;  we  found  but  one  work- 
man there,  and  he  was  sleeping  quite  at  his  ease.     .     .     . 

"  After  we  returned  to  Madame  Fretageot^s,  Mr.  Owen 
showed  me  some  interesting  objects  of  his  invention.  One 
of  them  consisted  of  cubes  of  different  sizes,  representing 
the  different  classes  of  the  British  population  in  the  year 
1811,  and  showed  what  a  powerful  burden  rested  on  the 
laboring  classes,  and  how  desirable  an  equal  division  of 
property  would  be  in  that  kingdom.  The  other  was  a 
plate,  according  to  which,  as  Mr.  Owen  asserted,  each  child 
could  be  shown  his  own  capabilities,  and  upon  which,  after 
a  mature  self-examination,  he  can  discover  what  progress 
he  had  made.  The  plate  has  this  superscription:  '^  Scale 
of  Human  Faculties  and  Qualities  at  Birth.'  It  has  ten 
scales  with  the  following  titles,  from  the  left  to  the  right: 
Self-attachment;  Affections;  Judgment;  Imagination; 
Memory;  Eefiection;  Perception;  Excitability;  Courage; 
Strength.  Each  scale  is  divided  into  one  hundred  parts, 
which  are  marked  from  five  to  five.  A  slide  that  can  be 
moved  up  and  down  shows  the  measure  of  the  qualities, 
therein  specified,  which  each  one  possesses,  or  believes  him- 
self to  possess. 

"  Mr.  Owen  considers  it  an  absurdity  to  promise  never- 
ending  love  on  marriage.  For  this  reason  he  has  intro- 
duced the  civil  contract  of  marriage,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Quakers,  and  declares  that  the  bond  of  matrimony  is  in 
no  way  indissoluble.  The  children,  indeed,  cause  no  im- 
pediment in  case  of  a  separation,  for  they  belong  to  the 
community  from  their  second  year,  and  are  all  brought  up 
together.     .     .     . 

"  I  passed  the  evening  with  the  amiable  Mr.  Maclure 
and  Madame  Fretageot,  and  became  acquainted  through 
them  with  a  French  artist,  Mr.  Lesueur,  who  calls  him- 
self an  uncle  of  Miss  Virginia;  also  a  Dutch  physician 

132 


THE   DUKE    OF   SAXE-WEIMAR 

from  Herzogenbusch,  Dr.  Troost,  a  naturalist.  Both  are 
members  of  the  community,  and  had  just  arrived  from  a 
pedestrian  tour  to  Illinois  and  the  southern  part  of  Mis- 
souri, where  they  have  examined  the  iron  and  particularly 
the  lead  mine  works.  Mr.  Lesueur  has  besides  discovered 
several  species  of  fish,  as  yet  undescribed.  Mr.  Lesueur 
accompanied  the  naturalist  Perouse  as  draftsman  in  his 
tour  to  New  South  Wales  under  Captain  Baudin,  and  pos- 
sessed all  the  illuminated  designs  of  the  animals  which  were 
discovered  for  the  first  time  upon  this  voyage,  upon  vellum. 
I  count  myself  fortunate  to  have  seen  them.  He  showed 
me  also  the  sketches  he  made  while  on  his  last  pedestrian 
tour,  as  well  as  those  during  the  voyage  of  several  of  the 
members  to  Mount  Vernon,  down  the  Ohio  from  Pittsburg. 
On  this  voyage  the  members  of  the  society  had  many  diffi- 
culties to  contend  with,  and  were  often  compelled  to  cut  a 
path  for  the  boat  through  the  ice.  He  had  come  to  Phila- 
delphia from  France  in  1815,  and  had  since  devoted  him- 
self to  the  arts  and  sciences." 


133 


CHAPTER   XIV 

TWO   VIEWS   OF   NEW   HARM0:N'Y 

No  American  autobiography  surpasses  in  literary 
charm  Eobert  Dale  Owen's  Threading  My  Way — a  collec- 
tion of  reminiscent  sketches  written  in  Mr.  Owen's  char- 
acteristically clear,  strong  style.  As  Mr.  John  Holliday 
remarks:  "  In  their  frankness  of  statement  and  fulness  of 
detail  about  personal  matters,  they  remind  one  of  Rous- 
seau's Confessions,  though  lacking  the  apparent  vanity  of 
the  Frenchman."  The  younger  Owen's  account  of  life  at 
'New  Harmony  during  the  community  period  is  interesting, 
though  disappointingly  brief,  for  the  subject  was  always 
distasteful  to  him.  "  When  I  reached  Harmony  early  in 
1826,"  he  says,  *^  these  general  ideas  (of  the  possibility  of 
the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  mankind)  prevailed  in 
my  mind  uninterrupted  by  the  sober  second-thought  which 
an  after-life  brought  with  it.  I  looked  at  everything  with 
eyes  of  enthusiasm;  and,  for  a  time,  the  life  there  was  won- 
derfully pleasant  and  hopeful  to  me.  This,  I  think,  is  the 
common  experience  of  intelligent  and  well-disposed  persons 
who  have  joined  the  Brook  Farm  or  other  reputable  com- 
munity. There  is  a  great  charm  in  the  good  fellowship, 
and  in  the  absence  of  conventionalism  which  characterizes 
such  association. 

"  There  was  something  especially  taking,  to  me,  at  least, 
in  the  absolute  freedom  from  all  trammels,  alike  in  the 
expression  of  opinion,  in  dress,  and  in  social  intercourse, 
which  I  found  there.     The  evening  gatherings,  too,  de- 

134 


TWO    VIEWS    OF   NEW   HARMONY 

lighted  me;  the  weekly  meetings  for  the  discussion  of  our 
principles,  in  which  I  took  part  at  once.  The  weekly  con- 
cert, with  an  excellent  leader,  Josiah  Warren,  and  a  per- 
formance of  music,  instrumental  and  vocal,  much  beyond 
what  I  had  expected  in  the  backwoods;  last,  but  not  least, 
the  weekly  ball,  where  I  found  crowds  of  young  people, 
bright  and  genial,  if  not  especially  cultivated,  and  as  pas- 
sionately fond  of  dancing  as  in  those  days  I  myself  was. 

"The  accommodations  seemed  to  me  indeed  of  the 
rudest,  and  the  fare  of  the  simplest;  but  I  cared  no  more 
for  that  than  young  folks  usually  care  who  desert  pleasant 
homes  to  spend  a  summer  month  or  two  under  canvas — 
their  tents  on  the  beach,  perhaps,  with  boats  and  fishing- 
tackle  at  command,  or  pitched  in  some  sylvan  retreat,  where 
youth  and  maiden  roam  the  forest  all  day,  returning  at 
nightfall  to  merry  talk,  improvised  music,  or  an  im- 
promptu dance  on  the  greensward. 

"  I  shrank  from  no  work  that  was  assigned  to  me,  and 
sometimes,  to  the  surprise  of  my  associates,  volunteered 
when  a  hard  or  disagreeable  job  came  up,  as  the  pulling 
down  of  the  dilapidated  cabins  throughout  the  village. 
But  after  a  time,  finding  that  others  could  manage  as  much 
at  common  labor  in  one  day  as  I  could  in  two  or  three, 
and  being  invited  to  take  general  charge  of  the  school  and 
to  aid  in  editing  the  weekly  paper,  I  settled  down  to  what 
I  confess  were  more  congenial  pursuits  than  wielding  the 
ax  or  holding  the  plow-handles. 

"  I  had  previously  tried  one  day  sowing  wheat  by  hand, 
and  held  out  until  evening,  but  my  right  arm  was  com- 
paratively useless  for  forty-eight  hours  thereafter.  An- 
other day,  when  certain  of  the  young  girls,  who  were  ba- 
king bread  for  one  of  the  large  boarding-houses,  lacked  an 
additional  hand,  I  offered  to  help  them;  and  when  the  re- 
sults of  my  labors  came  to  the  table,  it  was  suggested  that 
one  of  the  loaves  be  voted  to  me  as  a  gift  for  my  diligence, 
the  rather  as  by  a  little  manipulation,  such  as  apothecaries 

135 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

use  in  making  pills,  it  might  save  me  the  trouble  of  making 
bullets  the  next  time  I  went  out  rifle-shooting.     .     .     . 

"  On  the  whole,  my  life  at  Harmony  for  many  months 
was  happy  and  satisfying.  To  this  the  simple  relation  ex- 
isting between  youth  and  maiden  there  much  contributed. 
We  called  each  other  by  our  Christian  names  only;  spoke 
and  acted  as  brothers  and  sisters  might;  often  strolled  out 
by  moonlight  in  groups,  sometimes  in  pairs ;  yet  withal,  no 
scandal  or  other  harm  came  of  it,  either  then  or  later, 
unless  we  are  to  reckon  as  such  a  few  unsuited  and  im- 
provident matches  that  turned  out  poorly,  as  hasty  love- 
matches  will.  What  might  have  happened  to  myself  amid 
such  favorable  surroundings,  if  my  heart  had  not  been  pre- 
occupied, I  can  not  tell.  I  met  almost  daily,  handsome, 
interesting,  and  warm-hearted  girls;  bright,  merry,  and 
unsophisticated;  charming  partners  at  ball  or  picnic;  one 
especially,  who  afterward  married  a  son  of  Oliver  Evans, 
the  celebrated  inventor  and  machinist,  to  whom,  I  believe, 
we  owe  the  high-pressure  engine. 

"  Naturally  enough,  under  the  circumstances,  I  was  not 
haunted  by  doubts  as  to  the  success  of  the  social  experi- 
ment in  which  we  were  engaged.  The  inhabitants  seemed 
to  me  friendly  and  well  disposed.  There  was  much  origi- 
nality of  character. 

"  One  example  occurs  to  me — an  old  man  named  Green- 
wood, father  of  Miles  Greenwood,  known  afterward  to  the 
citizens  of  Cincinnati  as  chief  of  their  fire  department,  and 
still  later  as  proprietor  of  the  largest  foundry  and  machine- 
shops  then  in  the  West.  We  had,  during  the  summer  of 
1826,  several  terrific  thunder-storms,  such  as  I  had  never 
before  witnessed.  The  steeple  of  our  hall  was  shattered, 
and  it  was  during  one  of  these  storms,  when  the  whole 
heavens  seemed  illuminated  and  the  rain  was  falling  in  tor- 
rents, that  I  saw  old  Greenwood,  thoroughly  drenched  and 
carrying  straight  upright,  as  a  soldier  carries  a  musket,  a 
slender  iron  rod,  ten  or  twelve  feet  long.     He  was  walking 

136 


TWO    VIEWS    OF   NEW   HARMONY 

in  the  middle  of  the  street,  passing  with  slow  step  the  house 
in  which  I  was,  and,  as  I  afterward  learned,  paraded  every 
street  in  the  village  in  the  same  deliberate  manner.  Next 
day  I  met  him  and  asked  him  for  an  explanation.  *  Ah ! 
well,  my  young  friend,^  said  he,  ^  I  am  very  old;  I  am  not 
well;  I  suffer  much,  and  I  thought  it  might  be  a  good 
chance  to  slip  off,  and  be  laid  quietly  away  in  the  corner 
of  the  orchard.' 

"  ^  You  hoped  to  be  struck  by  lightning  ? ' 

" '  You  see,  I  don't  like  to  kill  myself ;  it  seems  like  ta- 
king matters  out  of  God's  hands;  but  I  thought  He  might 
send  me  a  spare  bolt  when  I  put  myself  in  the  way.  If  He 
had  only  seen  fit  to  do  it,  I'd  have  been  at  rest  this  very 
minute,  all  my  pains  gone,  no  more  trouble  to  any  one,  and 
no  more  burden  to  myself.'  " 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1826,  there  came  to  New  Har- 
mony a  curious  character  named  Paul  Brown.  In  1827  he 
published  a  pamphlet  entitled  Twelve  Months  in  New  Har- 
mony, in  which  he  recounted  his  experiences  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  community.  Brown  states  that  when  he  came 
from  his  home  in  one  of  the  Eastern  States  to  visit  relatives 
in  Tennessee,  he  found  the  New  Harmony  experiment  a 
common  topic  of  conversation  among  people  there,  and  he 
determined  to  visit  the  place  at  once.  Paving  the  way  by 
forwarding  a  huge  letter  to  Mr.  Owen,  he  proceeded  to  the 
settlement,  arriving  there  on  April  2d.  He  learned  on  his 
journey,  he  says,  that  the  original  constitution  had  been 
set  aside,  and  that  the  people  were  being  compelled  to  sign 
contracts  to  pay  for  property  at  an  appraised  valuation. 

"  It  was  anything  but  a  tranquil  neighborhood,"  writes 
Brown.  "  The  impression  I  took  from  what  I  could  gather 
was  that  this  stipulation  about  appraisal  not  having  been 
made  to  the  people  until  after  they  had  signed  the  con- 
stitution, the  disturbance  first  arose  from  some  of  them 
being  backward  about  taking  such  a  yoke  upon  themselves, 
which  generally  had  not  been  expected;  whereupon  an  ad- 

137 


THE   ^'E^Y   HAB2I0NY   IIOVEMENT 

vantage  was  immediately  taken  thereof  by  some  aspiring, 
aristocratical  spirits  to  make  a  division  of  the  town  into 
several  societies,  as,  one  of  the  school,  one  of  the  tavern, 
etc.,  another  of  the  mechanics,  and  another  of  the  farmers; 
the  school  and  tavern  societies  offering  to  take  upon  them- 
selves the  greater  part  of  the  debt;  exchanges  to  exist 
between  these  different  bodies  politic  by  what  they  called 
'  labor  for  labor/  This  was  overruled  by  Mr.  Owen,  who 
refused  to  contract  with  them  upon  such  a  plan,  and  de- 
clared he  knew  no  parties  in  New  Harmony  and  would 
countenance  but  one  homogeneous  union  in  that  place. 
He  afterward  shifted  his  ground,  and  said  that  in  one  j 
society  they  could  not  exist,  and  suggested  the  formation  | 
of  three.     In  this  he  could  not  prevail.'^  i 

"  Owen,"  Paul  Brown  declares,  "  then  selected  a  nucleus  i 
of  twenty-five  men  as  the  beginning  of  a  new  association.  ^ 
All  agreed  to  sign  contracts  with  Owen  and  Maclure  for  i 
the  real  and  personal  property  ^  as  appraised  by  somebody.'  ! 
Three  grades  of  membership  were  established:  conditional,  ] 
probationary,  and  members  on  trial.  All  the  affairs  of  the  I 
society  were  submitted  to  the  direction  of  Owen,  unless  ! 
within  twelve  months  two-thirds  of  the  members  should  ! 
decide  to  rule  themselves.  By  this  very  act  of  requiring  ] 
money  for  the  estate  purchased  by  the  community,  Owen 
proved  himself  to  be  a  trading  man,  and  not  a  philanthro- 
pist ;  proved  himself  incapacitated  to  found  a  real  common-  1 
wealth;  proved  that  it  could  not  have  been  the  sole  object  i 
and  pursuit  of  his  life  to  bring  such  a  thing  into  existence;  i 
proved  himself  to  be  lacking  of  integrity,  magnanimity,  and  i 
all  those  sublime  principles  essentially  requisite  to  form  a  I 
character  competent  to  introduce  into  life  an  example  of  | 
the  state  of  society  in  the  true  order  of  human  perfection,  ] 
of  a  sort  which  he  had  recommended."  | 

This  carping  critic  grants  that  freedom  of  speech  and 
of  the  press  were  accorded  by  the  New  Harmony  admin-      ; 
istration,  but  he  took  great  offense  at  "the  keeping  of      i 

138  ! 


TWO    VIEWS    OF   NEW   HARMONY 

books."  "  The  dancing  and  the  instrumental  music,"  he 
added,  "  engrossed  more  of  energy  than  the  more  impor- 
tant considerations  of  community  welfare.  There  must  be 
a  regular  ball  and  a  regular  concert  once  a  week."  He 
says  that  there  were  restless  spirits  constantly  urging  some 
new  experiment.  Owen,  he  states,  recommended  a  motion, 
to  be  made  before  all  the  people,  to  decide  whether  they 
should  be  divided  into  four  societies,  each  signing  its  own 
contract  for  such  a  part  of  the  property  as  it  should  pur- 
chase, trading  to  be  carried  on  among  them  by  means  of 
representative  paper  money.  Eobert  Owen  submitted  two 
propositions,  one  to  have  one  community  divided  into  oc- 
cupations, and  one  to  institute  four  distinct  communities. 
The  last  proposition  was  adopted. 

Linked  with  Brown's  cynical  atheism  was  a  puritanical 
spirit  which  railed  against  the  social  diversions  of  which 
the  Harmonists  were  so  fond.  "  The  instituting  of  such 
amusements  as  public  balls,  promenades,  and  music,"  he 
says,  "  seemed  to  be  propitious  to  interest  the  young  and 
enamor  them  of  the  place.  But  the  constant  succession 
of  this  sort  of  thing  clearly  induced  volatility  and  aversion 
to  serious  duties."  Brown  also  objected  to  the  industrial 
school  founded  by  William  Maclure,  on  the  ground  that 
young  persons  thus  taught  trades  or  parts  of  trades 
"  became  dependent  on  others  for  their  support  thereby." 
He  also  claimed  that  Mr.  Owen,  according  to  the  new  plan 
of  contract  with  four  societies,  would  receive  for  half  of 
the  estate  twenty  thousand  dollars  more  than  he  paid  for 
the  whole,  a  statement  that  had  no  foundation  in  fact,  as 
Mr.  Owen  gave  exceedingly  favorable  terms  to  the  societies 
proposing  settlement  on  the  estate. 

"Mr.  Owen,"  says  Brown,  "seems  to  have  constantly 
inculcated  upon  these  people,  from  the  beginning,  lessons 
of  thrift  and  knacks  of  gaining  and  saving  money;  yet  pro- 
fusions of  musical  instruments  were  provided,  and  great 
quantities  of  candles  burned  at  their  balls."    A  great  part 

139 


TEE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

of  the  time,  he  declared,  the  people  were  stinted  in  their 
allowances  of  tea,  butter,  milk,  etc.  "  Mr.  Owen  con- 
stantly boarded  at  the  tavern,  where  luxurious  regale  was 
copiously  provided  to  sell  to  traveling  men  of  the  world 
and  loungers.  Here  he  drank  coffee  and  tea  while  a  mul- 
titude of  laboring  people  who  were  quartered  in  the  large 
boarding-houses,  being  circumscribed  in  their  rations,  were 
very  much  in  the  habit  of  drinking  rye  coffee,  or  rye  mixed 
with  store  coffee."  Other  visitors  to  the  community  during 
this  period  agree  that  Mr.  Owen  was  content  with  the 
simplest  fare,  and  Mr.  Owen,  in  a  lecture  at  Philadelphia, 
stated  that  he  lived  on  an  expenditure  of  six  cents  a  day 
while  the  experiment  was  in  progress — eating  but  two  meals 
each  day,  one  at  7  a.  m.  and  one  at  5  p.  m. 

Brown  speaks  of  the  neglect  and  confusion  which  char- 
acterized the  conduct  of  community  enterprises.  "  The 
gardens  were  neglected,  and  though  several  skilled  gar- 
deners lived  in  the  community,  much  ground  lay  fallow 
which  might  have  made  handsome  gardens.  The  people, 
instead  of  employing  their  thoughts  to  execute  their  work 
well,  were  musing  on  plans  of  new  arrangements  in  the 
system  of  government  of  the  society."  The  reporting  of 
the  number  of  hours  of  labor,  "  and  the  keeping  of  debit 
and  credit,  was  a  constant  weight  upon  those  who  would 
work  from  principle.  Some  of  the  ground  was  called 
private  ground.  Everything  was  at  sixes  and  sevens.  The 
place  was  full  of  clamor,  disaffection,  and  calumny.  Com- 
plaints were  often  made  that  some  houses  got  a  greater 
supply  of  provisions  than  others." 

So  Brown  continues  with  his  catalogue  of  grievances. 
He  was  not  the  only  member  of  the  community  who  was 
ready  to  discredit  the  motives  of  the  unselfish  Kobert 
Owen,  and  to  contribute  to  the  growth  of  "  clamor,  disaffec- 
tion, and  calumny.^ 


140 


yy 


CHAPTER   XV 

COMMUNITY   PEOGRESS 

Ah,  soon  will  come  the  glorious  day, 

Inscribed  on  Mercy's  brow, 
AVhen  truth  shall  rend  the  veil  away 

That  blinds  the  nations  now. 

When  earth  no  more  in  anxious  fear 

And  misery  shall  sigh; 
And  pain  shall  cease,  and  every  tear 

Be  wiped  from  every  eye. 

The  race  of  man  shall  wisdom  learn. 

And  error  cease  to  reign  : 
The  charms  of  innocence  return. 

And  all  be  new  again. 

"^  The  fount  of  life  shall  then  be  quaffed 

In  peace  by  all  that  come  ; 
And  every  wind  that  blows  shall  waft 
Some  wandering  mortal  home. 

— Owenite  Poem,  1826. 

Robert  Owen's  retrospect  of  the  first  year's  proceed- 
ings of  the  "permanent  community,"  delivered  at  New 
Harmony  Hall  on  May  9,  1826,  is  another  evidence  of 
hopefulness  which  continued  in  him  after  doubt  and 
despair  had  seized  many  of  his  followers.  The  happiest 
side  of  everything  was  turned  to  the  world.  His  expecta- 
tions, he  declared,  had  been  far  surpassed.  He  had  not 
hoped  that  the  town  would  be  full  in  less  than  two  or  three 
years,  but  it  had  been  crowded  in  half  that  time.  "  Leav- 
ing home  in  the  fall  of  1824,  I  made  arrangements  to  re- 
turn in  the  spring  of  1825.    After  completing  the  purchase 

141 


THE  NEW  HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

of  this  property  in  April,  and  founding  the  Preliminary 
Society  in  May,  I  was  compelled  to  set  out  on  my  journey 
to  Europe  in  June.  I  left  the  new  settlement  in  the 
charge  of  a  committee  chosen  by  a  majority  of  the  adult 
population,  and  I  did  not  suppose  that  during  my  ab- 
sence they  could  do  more  than  receive  the  people  as  they 
came  in. 

"  As  soon,  however,  as  the  formation  of  the  Preliminary 
Society  was  announced,  people  came  flocking  from  all 
quarters  into  the  colony  to  offer  themselves  for  member- 
ship in  such  numbers  that  the  dwelling-houses  were  filled 
in  two  months,  and  the  press  for  admission  was  such  that 
it  became  necessary  to  insert  advertisements  in  the  news- 
papers of  the  surrounding  States  to  prevent  others  coming 
who  could  not  be  accepted  for  want  of  accommodations. 
On  my  arrival  in  January  last,  I  found  every  room 
occupied.^' 

The  affairs  of  the  society,  he  declared,  had  been  man- 
aged much  better  than  he  had  expected  they  would  be. 
"  About  a  thousand  individuals  of  all  characters  and  dis- 
positions had  come  together  from  far  and  near.  Their 
manners  and  tastes  were  as  various  as  the  varying  circum- 
stances under  which  their  character  had  been  formed. 
Many  of  the  children  were  extremely  wild,  rude,  and  un- 
cultivated, and  strangers  who  came  to  see  what  was  going 
forward  could  perceive  only  a  babel-like  confusion.  They 
came  and  wondered  and  went  away  disappointed." 

"  In  one  short  year,"  Mr.  Owen  stated,  "  this  mass  of 
confusion,  and  in  many  cases  of  bad  and  irregular  habits, 
has  been  formed  into  a  community  of  mutual  cooperation 
and  equality,  now  proceeding  rapidly  toward  a  state  of 
regular  organization.  Out  of  it  two  commimities  have 
been  formed  and  located  in  this  neighborhood."  The 
members  of  the  first  community,  Macluria,  "have  built 
themselves  temporary  comfortable  cabins,  and  they  have 
cultivated  more  land  than  will  be  necessary  to  supply  their 

142 


COMMUNITY   PROGUESS 

wants,  and  the  young  persons  are  spinning  and  weaving 
more  cloth  than  will  be  necessary  to  clothe  them.  With 
the  exception  of  two  refractory  members,  the  community 
seems  to  comprehend  the  new  principles."  These  refrac- 
tory members,  Mr.  Owen  declared,  would  probably  with- 
draw. 

Feiba  Peveli  had  a  large  and  well-cultivated  garden, 
said  Mr.  Owen,  and  an  extensive  and  well-kept  farm.  This 
community  had  good  prospects  of  paying  off  a  part  of  the 
debt  on  their  property  this  year.  Macluria  had  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty  members;  Feiba  Peveli  sixty  or 
seventy.  Applications  had  been  made  for  the  formation 
of  other  communities,  and  as  soon  as  houses  could  be  located 
for  them,  they  would  be  admitted. 

There  was  hardly  a  State  in  the  Union,  Mr.  Owen  de- 
clared, where  this  subject  did  not  attract  considerable 
attention,  "and  in  many  of  them  we  have  communities 
proceeding  under  these  principles,  notably  in  New  York, 
Kentucky,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois. 
Some,  we  know,  are  in  operation  in  each  of  those  States. 
In  England  and  Scotland  also,  the  cause  has  made  great 
progress,  the  Orbiston  community  having  had  notable 
success." 

"  Perhaps,"  said  the  hopeful  philosopher  in  closing, 
"  no  system  of  equal  magnitude,  involving  such  extensive 
changes  in  the  conduct  of  human  affairs,  ever  made  prog- 
ress in  any  degree  approaching  to  it  in  so  short  a  time. 
Hereafter,  no  one  who  comes  and  visits  Macluria  or  Feiba 
Peveli  will  doubt  the  practicability  of  this  scheme." 
"  But,"  said  Mr.  Owen,  "  the  great  experiment  in  New 
Harmony  is  still  going  on  to  ascertain  whether  a  large, 
heterogeneous  mass  of  persons,  collected  by  chance,  can  be 
amalgamated  into  one  community  and  induced  to  acquire 
the  genuine  feelings  of  kindness  and  benevolence  which 
belong  solely  to  the  principles  on  which  the  new  social  sys- 
tem is  founded,  and  which  no  other  principles  can  produce. 

143 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

The  friends  of  the  new  social  system  may  rejoice  and  be 
exceeding  glad,  for  they  may  be  assured  that  deliverance 
from  poverty,  ignorance,  and  the  oppression  of  riches  is 
at  hand." 

The  conditions  under  which  Feiba  Peveli  and  Macluria 
secured  their  land,  conditions  which  were  later  accepted 
by  other  communities,  comprehended  the  following  pro- 
visions : 

1.  That  they  should  always  remain  communities  -  of 
equality  and  cooperation  in  rights  and  property,  and  should 
not  be  divided  into  individiial  shares  or  separate  interests. 

2.  That  any  surplus  property  their  industry  might 
acquire  must  not  be  divided,  but  used  to  found  similar 
communities. 

3.  That  there  should  be  no  whisky,  or  other  distilled 
liquors,  made  in  the  communities. 

This  was  advanced  ground  on  the  liquor  question,  at  a 
time  when  it  was  not  so  seriously  considered  as  at  present, 
and  Eobert  Owen  was  already  enforcing  strict  prohibition 
at  New  Harmony.  Mr.  Owen,  about  this  time,  suggested 
the  formation  of  occupational  communities,  that  is,  asso- 
ciations of  mechanics  engaged  in  similar  trades,  farmers, 
etc.  There  was  evidently  some  friction  between  those  who 
labored  in  the  fields  and  factories,  and  those  who  desired  to 
derive  a  living  from  their  professional  training  or  knowl- 
edge of  trade. 

On  May  17th,  the  Gazette  said  that  there  were  already 
ten  communities  and  several  societies  in  operation  on  the 
New  Harmony  plan.  In  this  issue  of  the  community  organ 
is  also  found  an  account  of  the  formation  of  a  cooperative 
association  on  the  Owen  plan  at  Wainborough,  Illinois, 
and  of  the  "  Franklin  community,"  located  on  the  Hudson, 
sixty  miles  above  New  York  Cit}^,  this  society  adopting 
in  toto  one  of  the  numerous  New  Harmony  constitutions. 
In  the  latter  part  of  May,  advertisements  of  mercantile  busi- 
ness in  the  town  began  to  appear  in  the  Gazette.    We  also 

lU 


COMMUNITY   PROGRESS 

learn  from  the  Gazette  that  on  May  26th,  Paul  Brown 
delivered  a  lecture  in  opposition  to  the  management  of  the 
community.  He  spoke  vehemently  against  card-playing, 
and  also  complained  of  the  "  horse-laughing ''  of  the  chil- 
dren, which  disturbed  his  thoughts  and  "  rendered  life 
unendurable." 

The  dissenters  at  New  Harmony  were  by  this  time  be- 
coming bold  enough  to  attack  Mr.  Owen's  philosophy.  A 
complainant  deluged  the  Gazette  with  questions  which 
called  for  an  answer  from  Mr.  Owen.  He  wished  to  know 
what  is  to  be  the  stimulus  to  superior  industry  ?  how  money 
is  to  be  rendered  useless  in  The  Xew  Moral  World?  why 
the  people  of  the  community  can  not  see  the  model  of  the 
proposed  community  building,  as  shown  at  Washington? 
in  Mr.  Owen's  plan  for  such  a  building  what  is  the  supe- 
riority of  the  hollow  square  over  parallel  sides  at  a  con- 
venient distance  apart,  or  over  a  hollow  triangle,  pentagon, 
or  hexagon  ?  how,  in  the  erection  of  the  new  building,  will 
the  unevenness  of  the  ground  be  avoided?  etc.,  etc.  Such 
questions  dealt  rather  roughly  with  Mr.  Owen's  fanciful 
details,  and  his  answer  was  that  these  minor  arrangements 
were  not  an  essential  part  of  the  great  plan.  On  May  28th, 
Mr.  Owen  reminded  the  people  that  a  community  can  not 
exist  without  a  true  community  spirit.  Two  weeks  later, 
a  member  of  the  society  complained  through  the  Gazette 
that  the  thousand  members  of  the  society  had  come  to  New 
Harmony  at  an  expense  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  to  find 
that  communism  was  not  being  practised.  Emulation, 
declared  another  correspondent,  must  be  admitted  into  the 
community  in  order  to  make  it  a  success,  and  lawyers  and 
capitalists  ought  not  be  spoken  of  as  outlaws,  but  their 
friendship  should  be  cultivated.  Members  w-ho  steal  or 
destroy  the  property  of  others,  this  correspondent  insisted, 
ought  to  be  expelled,  as  w^ell  as  those  who  drink  intoxicating 
liquors.  "  This,  of  course,  has  never  happened  at  New 
Harmony/'  declared  the  cautious  contributor.    The  Gazette 

11  145 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

had  declared  on  May  24tli,  that  "  the  system  of  prevention 
destroys  drunkenness  in  New  Harmony/' 

On  July  4:,  1826,  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  sign- 
ing of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Robert  Owen  made 
the  effort  which  he  seemed  to  consider  the  chief  event  in 
history  since  the  signing  of  the  American  Declaration,  in 
delivering  what  he  called  "  The  Declaration  of  Mental 
Independence."  "  I  now  declare  to  you  and  to  the  world," 
he  began,  "  that  man  up  to  this  hour  has  been  in  all  parts 
of  the  earth  a  slave  to  a  trinity  of  the  most  monstrous 
evils  that  could  be  combined  to  inflict  mental  and  physical 
evil  upon  the  whole  race.  I  refer  to  private  or  individual 
property,  absurd  and  irrational  systems  of  religion,  and 
marriage  founded  upon  individual  property,  combined 
with  some  of  these  irrational  systems  of  religion."  Then 
followed  a  reiteration  of  principles  as  set  forth  in  The 
New  Moral  World.  With  undaunted  optimism  he  declared, 
in  closing :  "  Our  principles  will  spread  from  community 
to  community,  from  State  to  State,  from  continent  to  con- 
tinent, until  this  system  and  these  principles  shall  over- 
shadow the  whole  earth,  shedding  fragrance  and  abun- 
dance, intelligence  and  happiness  upon  all  the  sons  of 
men."  This  declaration,  Mr.  Owen  said  upon  this  occa- 
sion, he  considered  the  most  important  event  in  his  life. 
The  Gazette  was  thereafter  dated  in  the  "  first "  and  "  sec- 
ond "  years  of  "  mental  independence." 

Early  in  July,  Sunday  meetings  for  instruction  in  the 
new  principles  were  instituted.  At  these  sessions  Robert 
Owen  presided,  and  led  in  the  discussions.  Accounts  of 
these  meetings  are  given  in  the  community  paper,  and 
we  learn  that  Mr.  Owen's  addresses  were  often  followed 
by  spirited  debates  among  the  members.  Although  many 
of  the  members,  Mr.  Owen  declared  on  July  30th,  had 
not  seen  their  way  clear  and  had  fainted  by  the  way, 
still  he  had  witnessed  a  uniform  progress  from  the  old 
system  to  the  new.    "  From  present  appearances,  in  twelve 

146 


COMMUNITY   PROGRESS 

months  we  will  be  able  to  contend  against  the  world." 
Six  months  ago  he  would  not  have  imagined  that  the  prog- 
ress since  made  could  have  been  effected  in  years. 

"  Suppose,"  said  an  interrogator  at  one  meeting,  "  one- 
third  of  the  population  should  pledge  themselves  to  go 
the  whole  way  with  you  (into  communistic  association), 
would  you  be  willing  to  go  the  whole  way?  Would  you 
be  willing  to  make  common  stock  of  your  property  ? " 
*^  Yes,"  Mr.  Owen  answered,  "  I  am  ready  and  will  join  you 
whenever  there  shall  be  a  sufficient  number  who  follow 
and  understand  the  principles,  and  who  will  honestly  carry 
them  into  effect." 

On  July  30,  1826,  the  New  Harmony  Agricultural 
and  Pastoral  Society  adopted  a  constitution  modeled  after 
those  previously  adopted  by  New  Harmony  communistic 
associations.  The  membership,  limited  to  thirty  families, 
was  less  exclusive  than  that  of  former  societies,  a  two- 
thirds  vote  being  sufficient  to  admit  an  applicant.  Mem- 
bers leaving  the  society  previous  to  the  payment  of  the 
debt  to  Eobert  Owen  must  relinquish  all  share  in 
the  property.  The  last  clause  of  the  constitution  pledged 
the  society  to  "  furnish  its  quota  of  soldiers,  statesmen,  and 
politicians." 

The  fact  that  the  administration  organ  gave  few  par- 
ticulars of  the  progress  of  the  communities  during  the 
summer  of  1826  is  evidence  that  there  was  little  to  report 
that  was  favorable  to  the  prospects  of  the  New  Harmony 
experiment.  We  only  know  that  numerous  expedients  were 
tried  to  better  the  condition  of  the  communities,  and  that 
all  ultimately  failed.  The  summer  was  full  of  projects, 
auspiciously  begun  and  disastrously  ended. 

For  lack  of  a  better  authority,  we  must  fall  back  on 
Paul  Brown.  The  mechanics,  he  states,  entered  into  in- 
denture with  Owen  for  lands  and  houses  aggregating  in 
value  twenty-three  thousand  dollars,  agreeing  to  pay  five 
per  cent  interest  on  this  amount,  and  the  property  not 

147 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

to  be  deeded  to  tliem  until  the  last  instalment  on  the  prin- 
cipal had  been  paid.  The  "  School  Society  "  made  a  con- 
tract for  nine  hundred  acres  of  land,  and  the  best  of  the 
buildings,  leasing  these  for  ten  thousand  years,  and  agree- 
ing to  pay  forty-nine  thousand  dollars  therefor.  The 
"  Pastoral  Society  ''  had  a  similar  contract  for  a  large  tract 
of  land.  There  was  great  jealousy  against  the  educational 
society,  the  commoners  deeming  it  an  aristocracy.  There 
were  many  changes  from  society  to  society,  and  the  com- 
munities devoted  much  time  and  energy  to  wrangling  with 
one  another.  Brown  says :  "  The  claim  to  some  crops  being 
unsettled  between  two  societies,  a  large  patch  of  cabbages 
went  to  ruin  from  neglect.  .  .  .  Everything  was  at 
sixes  and  sevens  at  the  very  time  when  everything  ought 
to  have  been  in  complete  order  and  the  people  tending 
busily  to  saving  the  products." 

Brown  found  no  attraction  even  in  the  social  diversions 
which  enlivened  the  place.  '^  The  people  of  the  town," 
he  says,  "  continued  strangers  to  each  other,  in  spite  of  all 
their  meetings,  their  balls,  their  frequent  occasions  of  con- 
gregating in  the  hall,  and  all  their  pretense  of  cooperation. 
From  the  first  time  I  set  my  foot  within  this  little  town 
of  one-half  mile  square,  I  think  there  is  not  one,  within 
the  range  of  my  observations  during  my  traveling  in  other 
towns  of  the  United  States,  where  the  same  number  of 
persons,  living  together  within  such  a  compass  for  so  many 
months,  and  daily  and  hourly  passing  and  repassing  each 
other,  were  so  perfectly  strang^ers,  and  void  of  all  personal 
intimacy  with  each  other's  feelings,  views,  situations,  and, 
very  generally,  names." 

At  a  meeting  held  on  August  20th,  Eobert  Owen  said : 
"  Believe  me,  that  if  you  and  your  children  will  only  regu- 
larly meet  here  three  evenings  in  the  week,  and  give  your 
attention  to  the  subject,  one  year  will  not  have  passed  before 
the  minds  of  all  will  have  become  generally  well  informed. 
We  ought  to  at  once  lay  the  foundation  of  this  general 

148 


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COMMUNITY  PROGRESS 

knowledge/'  On  motion  it  was  agreed  that  Monday, 
Wednesday,  and  Friday  evenings  should  be  given  to  this 
purpose.  These  meetings  were  continued,  with  decreasing 
attendance,  for  only  a  few  weeks.  On  August  27th,  Mr. 
Owen  stated  "that  the  last  week  had  been  well  employed 
in  commencing  the  education  of  the  children  belonging 
to  the  manufacturing,  mechanical,  and  pastoral  societies." 
While  Mr.  Owen  was  delivering  an  excellent  course  of  lec- 
tures on  early  education,  Paul  Brown  does  not  think  that 
the  children  were  progressing  far  in  the  straight  and 
narrow  way.  The  mechanics  became  confused  in  the  intri- 
cate machinery  created  by  their  constitution,  and  relieved 
themselves  by  abolishing  their  numerous  offices,  and  crea- 
ting in  their  stead  a  trinity  of  dictators,  which  they  blas- 
phemously called  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God 
the  Holy  Ghost.  The  farmers  became  offended  by  some 
proceeding  of  the  educational  society,  and  decided  to  re- 
move their  children  from  school,  paying  their  tuition  up 
to  that  time.  The  mechanics,  who  seemed  to  be  greater 
revolutionists  than  the  farmers,  became  involved  in  another 
quarrel,  and  also  withdrew  their  children,  but  refused  to 
pay  anything  for  the  instruction  they  had  already  received. 
Brown  says  that  gardens  and  fields  were  almost  entirely 
neglected.  Large  holes  were  made  in  the  fences  "by 
brutes  and  boys.''  These  openings  into  cultivated  en- 
closures grew  wider  and  wider,  until  "  swine  ranged  at 
pleasure  throughout,  then  cows,  and  next  horses."  A  pil- 
fering spirit,  he  says,  pervaded  the  place.  "  Two  dames 
of  House  Number  4,  where  abode  the  pastorals  and  shep- 
herds, had  a  battle  with  their  fists."  The  children.  Brown 
declares,  ran  morally  mad.  To  crown  it  all,  the  Gazette 
refused  to  publish  some  essays  written  by  Paul  Brown 
himself.  The  Gazette  does  not  agree  with  Brown  in  its 
accounts  of  community  conditions,  but  stated  about  this 
time  that,  "  from  a  neglect  of  the  principles  of  the  system, 
some  very  well-meaning  individuals  are  committing  mis- 

149 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

takes  which  deprive  them  of  the  enjoyment  of  a  happy 
state  of  mind.  They  blame  individuals  upon  conjecture; 
they  become  angry  at  these  individuals,  and  do  and  say 
things  which  they  afterward  deeply  regret." 

At  length  the  refractory  farmers  and  mechanics  agreed 
to  allow  Mr.  Owen  to  have  charge  of  the  schooling  of  their 
children,  and  a  school  was  set  up  in  the  shoe-factory,  with 
Mr.  Owen  as  principal.  Following  this  there  seems  to  have 
ensued  a  period  of  temporary  hopefulness  and  community 
convalescence. 

At  the  Sunday  meeting  for  instruction  on  August 
23d,  Robert  Owen  quoted  from  a  book  entitled  The  Three 
Wise  Men  of  Gotham,  which  held  the  Owenites  up  to  ridi- 
cule. He  stated  that  the  book  was  embellished  with  a  pic- 
ture of  three  wise  men  sailing  in  a  bowl,  with  the  motto 
accompanying  it: 

*'  Three  wise  men  of  Gotham  put  out  to  sea  in  a  bowl : 
If  the  bowl  had  been  stronger,  my  tale  had  been  longer." 

The  book,  Mr.  Owen  stated,  was  divided  into  three 
parts,  the  first  intended  to  give  a  ludicrous  history  of  a 
pupil  of  the  new  system;  the  second  to  show  the  absurdi- 
ties, uncertainties,  and  consequent  evils  of  law  under  the 
individual  system ;  the  third  was  a  satire  on  frivolity.  The 
first  chapter  treated  of  a  man  machine  who  was  supposed  to 
tell  his  own  story.  Mr.  Owen  read  some  pages  which 
treated  of  the  employment  of  young  children  in  the  fac- 
tories of  Great  Britain,  and  accused  Mr.  Owen  of  cupidity 
and  a  desire  to  make  money  by  the  labor  of  his  followers. 

On  September  17,  1826,  a  general  meeting  of  the 
societies  and  the  population  of  New  Harmony  was  held 
at  the  hall.  A  message  from  Eobert  Owen  was  submitted^ 
proposing  a  plan  for  "  the  amelioration  of  the  society,  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  make  them  more 
contented."    Mr.  Owen  offered  to  join  any  number  of  per- 

150 


COMMUNITY   PROGRESS 

sons,  the  present  existing  communities  being  abolished,  m 
the  formation  of  a  new  general  community,  to  be  called 
"  The  New  Harmony  Community  Number  1."  The  agree- 
ment stipulated  that  the  real  and  personal  property  held 
by  members,  and  located  in  the  United  States,  should  be 
made  common  stock,  except  what  might  be  sufficient  to  pay 
the  just  debts  of  members,  and  their  wearing  apparel, 
household  furniture,  and  whatever  they  might  feel  disposed 
to  set  apart  for  the  support  of  absent  relatives  who  were 
not  members  of  the  community.  The  government  of  this 
new  community,  Mr.  Owen  proposed,  should  be  invested  in 
himself  and  four  directors  to  be  appointed  by  him.  This 
administration  should  continue  for  five  years,  at  the  end 
of  which  time  the  majority  might  decide  as  to  the  future 
government  of  the  community.  The  members  were  to  obli- 
gate themselves  to  "  use  their  best  endeavors  by  temperate, 
economical,  and  prudent  habits  to  contribute  to  the  interest 
of  all  and  the  happiness  of  each.^' 

The  existing  communities  did  not  at  once  concur  in  this 
plan.  The  members  of  the  educational  society  denounced 
it  as  a  despotism.  On  October  24th,  Macluria  had  removed 
three  of  its  directors  and  its  agent.  Soon  after  it  split  in 
two,  on  account,  it  is  said,  of  a  religious  controversy,  and 
returned  the  community  property  to  Mr.  Owen,  who  merged 
it  into  the  estate  of  the  new  community  Number  1. 
Ninety-six  members  were  secured  for  this  association  in 
a  few'  days.  The  educational  society  opposed  the  plan 
so  vigorously  that,  according  to  Paul  Brown,  its  supplies 
were  cut  off  for  a  few  days. 

The  formation  of  the  new  community  seems  to  have 
created  a  better  state  of  affairs  for  a  time,  while  Mr. 
Owen's  instruction  of  the  children  was  accomplishing 
much  good.  The  Gazette  of  October  11th  declared :  "  For 
several  weeks  past,  the  steady  progress  in  good  habits  and 
substantial  improvement  among  the  younger  part  of  the 
population  has  been  obvious  to  every  one.    They  have  com- 

151 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

menced  a  system  of  instruction  which  at  once  fixed  their 
attention,  and  changed  their  whole  conduct.  They  are 
most  punctual  in  their  attendance  upon  the  lectures,  and 
take  an  extraordinary  interest  in  them;  and  in  the  same 
proportion  that  these  good  feelings  and  higher  views 
have  arisen,  they  have  abandoned  their  wild  and  irrational 
mode  of  conduct;  they  are  now  seldom  heard  to  swear  or 
seen  engaged  in  quarrels,  as  was  their  common  conduct 
at  their  first  coming.  Their  industry  keeps  pace  with  their 
other  improvements,  and  their  parents  generally  express 
the  greatest  satisfaction  in  the  change  effected  in  their 
children.  The  parents  also  have  made  a  considerable  ad- 
vance in  temperance  and  industry.  There  are  but  two  or 
three  among  the  whole  population  who  are  seen  occasionally 
to  trespass  against  the  former  virtue,  and  such  is  the  gen- 
eral feeling  of  disapprobation  in  consequence  that  it  is 
evident  to  every  one  that  they  must  speedily  change  this 
deplorable  habit,  or  leave  the  society. 

"  The  most  eccentric  and  violent  characters,  who  were 
unprepared  to  give  up  their  eccentricities,  having  left  the 
society,  all  have  agreed  to  commence  the  social  system 
upon  its  true  foundation  of  common  property,  good  feeling, 
and  true  conduct.  The  community  unanimously  agreed 
that  Mr.  Owen  should  take  the  direction  of  its  formation 
until  it  was  so  far  advanced  that  the  members  should  be 
instructed  in  the  practise  of  the  whole  as  well  as  in  the 
principles.  The  declaration  of  mental  independence  hav- 
ing cleared  away  the  greater  part  of  the  errors  which  pre- 
viously prevailed  in  the  minds  of  many,  and  removed  all 
doubts  from  the  strong  minded  in  regard  to  Mr.  Owen's 
real  views  and  ultimate  objects,  mutual  confidence  has  been 
established.  The  town  is  so  full  that  several  await  the 
completion  of  some  houses  which  are  yet  in  progress.  The 
applications  for  membership  have  also  largely  increased 
lately.  There  can  be  little  doubt,  therefore,  that  as  soon  as 
the  public  mind  shall  be  calmed  after  the  first  surprise 

152 


COMMUNITY   PROGRESS 

of  such  an  attack  as  was  the  Declaration  of  Mental  Inde- 
pendence, as  soon  as  the  productive  classes  shall  have  time 
and  opportunity  to  discover  how  grievously  they  are  injured 
by  the  old  system  in  every  part  of  the  world,  and  more 
especially  when  they  reflect  upon  the  fate  of  the  producers 
of  all  wealth  in  Great  Britain,  they  will  bestir  themselves 
everywhere,  and  adopt  principles  and  arrangements  by 
which  they  will  securely  enjoy  the  full  benefit  of  their 
mental  and  physical  exertions." 

On  November  8th,  the  Gazette  declared  that  at  the 
beginning  of  the  experiment  some  intemperate,  thievish, 
aristocratic,  violent,  eccentric,  ill-tempered,  vain,  and 
scheming  persons  came  to  the  community.  "  Some  of  the 
most  defective  characters  have  left  the  community,  how- 
ever, as  well  as  some  who  would  have  made  good  members 
had  they  persevered.  It  would  be  an  act  of  very  great 
injustice  to  the  community  and  the  public,  to  say  that  the 
community  character  has  yet  been  attained  by  us ;  all  par- 
ties as  yet  have  scarcely  become  known  to  each  other,  and 
we  are  but  partially  acquainted  with  the  materials  around 
us.  Some  progress  has,  however,  been  made.  Drunkenness 
has  been  diminished  until  it  is  now  scarcely  known.  In- 
dustry has  become  steady  and  regular  among  all  classes, 
with  a  few  exceptions.  The  children  are  gradually  losing 
the  wild  and  thoughtless  habits  which  they  once  possessed, 
and  are  beginning  to  acquire  those  of  attention  and  refine- 
ment. 

"  The  principal  thing  to  be  contended  with  is  the  char- 
acter formed  by  a  new  country.  Families  have  been  here 
collected  without  any  relation  to  each  others'  views  and 
peculiarities.  Many  of  these  persons,  after  their  arrival, 
have  been  deprived  of  more  or  less  of  their  property,  and 
a  general  system  of  trading  speculation  exists  among  them, 
each  one  trying  to  get  the  best  of  the  other.  Confidence 
can  not,  therefore,  exist  among  them,  and  there  is  an  un- 
reasonable spirit  of  suspicion  prevalent.     Inexperience  in 

153 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

community  enterprises  is  another  great  obstacle,  and  edu- 
cation alone  can  overcome  these  difficulties." 

On  November  29th,  the  Gazette  announced  that  arrange- 
ments had  been  perfected  for  educating  all  the  children 
of  the  community  in  one  family.  It  says,  further :  "  Some 
of  the  population  entertain  the  opinion  that  a  few  of  the 
members  are  not  so  careful  and  industrious  as  they  ought 
to  be,  and  it  is  probable  that  there  may  be  some  truth  in 
these  surmises.  Nothing,  however,  is  so  damaging  as  a 
suspicious  spirit. 

"  Another  cause  of  dissatisfaction  among  the  members 
of  the  educational  society  arose  from  a  misconception 
among  them  as  to  the  best  line  of  separation  between  their 
lands  and  those  of  the  other  societies.  They  thought  some 
other  line,  giving  them  more  land  in  a  particular  direction 
inconvenient  to  their  neighbors,  was  necessary  for  them; 
a  little  reflection,  however,  will  convince  them  of  their 
error,  there  being  more  land  than  is  requisite  for  ten  other 
communities,  and  whenever  they  are  prepared  to  require 
more  for  cultivation,  it  can  be  obtained  without  difficulty. 
It  deserves  not  a  moment's  reflection  whether  one  society 
has  a  little  more  or  a  little  less  for  the  present,  providing 
a  line  shall  be  adopted  which  will  prevent  them  from  inter- 
fering with  each  other's  principles,  objects,  and  arrange- 
ments. Shortly  each  member  of  all  these  societies  will 
discover  that  they  have  but  one  and  the  same  interest. 
These  little  matters,  creating  some  temporary  difference 
of  feeling,  being  once  adjusted,  the  rapidity  of  our  progress 
will  be  much  accelerated.'' 

At  a  meeting  of  the  society  on  November  11,  1826, 
Robert  Owen  said :  "  We  meet  particularly  for  the  purpose 
of  taking  a  survey  of  the  last  half-year's  proceedings,  and 
the  progress  the  community  has  made  toward  the  attain- 
ment of  the  great  object  which  has  brought  me  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  which  has  induced  you  to  collect  yourselves 
together  at  this  place.     Many  are  ridiculing  the  project, 

154 


COMMUNITY  PROGRESS 

but  the  members  should  not  heed  in  the  slightest  what  the 
world  has  said  or  may  say  relative  to  our  discussions  here. 
It  knows  no  more  of  this  subject,  which  is  new  in  the  annals 
of  the  human  race,  than  a  man  born  blind  knows  of  colors," 
Mr.  Owen  proceeded  to  state,  after  reading  the  first  chap- 
ter of  a  new  work  on  the  "  social  system/^  which  had  been 
done  preparatory  to  the  introduction  of  the  new  state  of 
society.  He  commenced  with  the  purchase  of  the  estate,  and 
the  collection  of  persons  desirous  of  trying  the  experiment. 
He  mentioned  the  establishment  of  the  Gazette  "  for  the 
promulgation  of  true  principles.-'^  These  results,  he  said, 
were  accomplished  during  the  first  year.  During  the  suc- 
ceeding six  months,  the  Declaration  of  Mental  Independ- 
ence had  been  mad^,  the  publication  of  which  he  regarded 
as  laying  the  foundations  of  the  new  social  system  "  on  a 
rock  immovable  through  future  ages.^^  Then  the  asso- 
ciation was  formed  into  a  community  of  common  prop- 
erty. "  In  the  next  place,  an  experiment  has  been  made 
which  proves  how  easily  the  whole  community  may  be 
reeducated  into  one  family,  or  true  community.  The 
community  has  discovered  by  experience  the  utility  of 
delegating  the  direction  of  this  organization  to  some  of 
the  members  until  the  majority  of  them  acquire  the 
knowledge  of  the  best  mode  of  acting  in  general  meas- 
ures, or  upon  an  extensive  combination.  It  had  further 
ascertained  the  qualities,  character,  or  virtues  which  are 
necessary  to  be  acquired  by  all  members  of  a  community 
of  common  property,  equality  and  justice,  and  without 
which  no  community  can  be  successful.  ...  A  long 
discussion  followed,"  states  the  Gazette. 


155 


CHAPTER   XVI 

COMMUNITY    DISINTEGKATION 

*'  In  my  own  behalf  I  rejoice  that  I  could  once  think  better  of  the 
world  probably  than  it  deserved.  It  is  a  mistake  into  which  men  seldom 
fall  twice  in  a  lifetime,  or,  if  so,  the  rarer  and  higher  the  nature  that 
can  thus  magnanimously  press  onward.  ,  .  .  Whatever  else  I  may 
repent  of,  therefore,  let  it  be  reckoned  neither  among  my  sins  nor  follies 
that  I  once  had  faith  and  force  enough  to  form  generous  hopes  of  the 
world's  destiny." — Nathaniel  Hawthorne  in  The  Blithedale  Romance. 

"  Besides  those  who  came  to  New  Harmony  with  good 
intentions/^  said  the  late  Colonel  Eichard  Owen,  in  a  letter 
to  John  H.  Holliday,  "  there  were  a  good  many  who  came 
thinking  to  make  money  by  getting  lands  and  houses  into 
their  hands  on  pretense  of  being  strong  advocates  of  so- 
cialism. Some  of  them  were  very  unscrupulous  in  the 
means  employed,  notably  William  Taylor,  who  afterward 
was  in  the  Ohio  penitentiary,  I  think,  for  forgery;  Amos 
Clark,  who  moved  to  Texas,  and  some  others  whose  rela- 
tives are  still  living — hence  I  do  not  mention  their  names." 

Chief  among  these  dishonest  speculators  was  the  Will- 
iam Taylor  referred  to  in  this  letter.  Gaining  the  confi- 
dence of  Mr.  Owen,  he  induced  him  to  sell  him  fifteen 
hundred  acres  of  land.  It  is  said  that  the  contract  read 
"  with  all  thereon,"  and  that  Taylor  moved  all  the  agricul- 
tural implements  and  live  stock  he  could  find  on  other 
parts  of  the  estate  upon  his  tract  the  night  before  the 
day  upon  which  the  contract  went  into  effect.  Taylor 
established  a  distillery,  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  Mr.  Owen, 
and  in  every  way  possible  made  trouble  for  the  manage- 
ment of  the  community  enterprise. 

156 


COMMUNITY   DISINTEGRATION 

N'ear  the  close  of  the  year  1826,  many  of  the  members 
of  the  community  were  being  expelled  for  incapacity. 
Paul  Brown  says  of  the  sale  of  land  ta  Taylor :  "  This 
maneuver  swept  away  the  last  cobweb  of  fairy  dreams  of 
a  common  stock  and  community."  A  funeral  of  the  social 
system  was  projected  by  some  of  the  N'ew  Harmonites.  A 
coflBn  was  procured  and  properly  labeled,  and  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  an  imposing  procession;  but  the 
night  before  the  day  set  for  the  funeral  the  building  in 
which  the  coffin  was  concealed  was  broken  into  and  all 
the  paraphernalia  destroyed,  so  that  the  project  was  aban- 
doned, and  the  svstem  was  allowed  to  die  in  its  own 
way.  "  Owen^s  practises  about  this  time,"  says  Brown, 
"  tended  to  inspire  cupidit}^  and  his  preaching  tended  to 
inspire  apathy  and  licentiousness."  Without  doubt  Mr. 
Owen  was  now  attempting  to  extricate  himself  from  the 
financial  embarrassment  which  overhung  the  experiment, 
for  he  doubtless  realized  that  the  end  of  the  scheme  was 
near. 

"  Moreover,"  complains  Brown,  "  the  individual  suf- 
ferings from  the  privations  and  embarrassments  arising 
out  of  the  continual  shifting  of  arrangements,  as  well  as  by 
the  circumscription  of  subsistence,  deadened  the  wonted 
sympathy  of  many  ingenuous  souls.  Money  was  in  higher 
repute  than  in  any  other  town,  and  became  almost  an 
object  of  worship.  The  sexes  fought  like  cats  and  dogs 
about  individual  marriages;  there  was  no  politeness  be- 
tween the  single  persons  of  the  two  sexes,  but  a  dark,  sul- 
len, cold,  suspicious  temper,  and  a  most  intolerable, 
miserly  allusion  to  individual  property  as  the  standard  of 
worth.  The  single  men  of  the  town  were  generally  obliged 
to  make  their  own  beds,  carry  their  clothes  to  wash  and 
recover  them  when  they  could,  as  much  as  if  they  had  be- 
longed to  an  army.  Everv  one  was  for  himself,  as  the 
saying  is." 

The  pretense  of  communism  was  kept  up  by  the  admin- 

157 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

istration,  perhaps  with  the  hope  that  something  would  turn 
up  to  change  the  trend  of  affairs.  The  Sunday  meetings 
for  instruction,  which  had  for  some  time  been  discon- 
tinued on  account  of  a  lack  of  heating  accommodations  at 
the  hall,  were  resumed.  About  this  time  two  more  com- 
munities were  formed  on  the  New  Harmony  estate — 
Number  3,  within  a  half  mile  of  New  Harmony,  and 
Number  4.  Delegates  arrived  during  the  latter  part  of 
January,  bringing  tidings  of  the  Blue  Springs  community, 
near  Bloomington,  Indiana.  They  reported  it  to  be  in  a 
prosperous  condition. 

About  this  time  the  Gazette  declared  in  an  editorial: 
"  We  have  not  ourselves  for  some  weeks  expressed  an  opin- 
ion as  to  the  progress  of  the  community,  both  on  account 
of  the  difficulty  of  getting  a  correct  statement,  and  then 
again  because  the  state  of  the  public  mind  in  a  young  and 
heterogeneous  society  like  this  varies  easily  and  rapidly, 
producing  a  corresponding  impulse  and  revulsion.  If  a 
community  is  to  grow  together  and  harmoniously,  its  mem- 
bers must  meet  frequently,  a  thing  that  has  not  been  done 
here  lately  on  account  of  the  heating  of  the  hall.  Nine- 
tenths  of  the  advantages  of  community  life  are  lost  in  the 
absence  of  meetings  for  social  intercourse.^^ 

"  In  March,^^  Brown  says,  "  a  plan  was  made  by  some 
to  ascend  the  Ohio  Eiver,  and  form  a  community  near  Cin- 
cinnati." The  granary,  public  eating-house,  cook-house, 
meeting-house,  and  sitting-rooms  were  deserted  and  the 
remaining  members  of  the  society  took  their  meals  at  the 
boarding-school.  On  March  21st,  eighty  persons  left 
New  Harmony  by  boat.  A  greater  part  of  the  town  was 
now  resolved  into  town  lots,  and  signboards  began  to  go 
up  everywhere.  "  A  sort  of  wax  figure  and  puppet  show 
was  opened  up  at  one  end  of  the  boarding-house,  and  every- 
thing was  getting  into  the  old  style." 

The  New  Harmony  Gazette  of  March  28,  1827,  in 
an  editorial  written  by  Robert  Dale  Owen  and  William 

158 


COMMUNITY   DISINTEGRATION 

Owen,  acknowledged  the  defeat  of  the  experiment  in 
the  .town  itself,  although  faith  was  still  affirmed  in  the 
principles  involved  in  the  general  plan,  and  confidence  in 
the  future  success  of  other  communities  located  on  the 
estate.  "  Eobert  Owen,  in  his  first  address,  did  not  desig- 
nate New  Harmonv  even  as  the  site  of  the  future  com- 
munity,  but  only  as  a  half-way  house.  We  think  that  this 
was  the  wisest  plan,  and  it  was  well  that  the  Preliminary 
Society  should  have  continued  two  years. 

"  Eobert  Owen,  after  his  return  from  England,  nine 
months  after  the  formation  of  the  Preliminary  Society, 
thought  that  further  delay  would  be  inadvisable,  and, 
unfitted  as  the  town  was  by  its  variety  of  people  and 
unique  occupations  for  the  purposes  of  community  life, 
heterogeneous  as  was  the  character  of  its  numerous  inhabi- 
tants, and  little  as  they  knew  of  each  other,  he  thought 
they  might  be  formed,  with  a  few  exceptions,  into  a  self- 
governing  community.  A  vote  of  the  society  determined 
that  no  exceptions  should  be  made,  and  the  members  of  the 
Preliminary  Society  resolved  themselves  into  a  community. 

'*'  We  have  yet  to  learn  that  the  character  of  a  person 
educated  among  the  surroundings  of  the  old  world,  can 
be  entirely  changed.  The  experiment,  to  ascertain  at  once 
whether  a  mixed  and  unassorted  population  could  success- 
fully govern  their  own  affairs  as  a  community,  was  a  bold 
and  hazardous  attempt,  and,  we  think,  a  premature  one. 

"  Our  own  opinion  is  that  Eobert  Owen  ascribed  too 
little  influence  to  the  early  antisocial  circumstances  that 
had  surrounded  many  of  the  quickly  collected  inhabitants 
of  New  Harmony  before  their  arrival  here,  and  too  much  to 
the  circumstances  which  experience  might  enable  them  to 
create  around  themselves  in  future.  He  sought  to  abridge 
the  period  of  human  suffering  by  an  immediate  and  de- 
cisive step,  and  the  plan  was  boldly  conceived;  the  failure 
would  only  afford  proof  that  the  conception  in  this  par- 
ticular case  was  not  as  practical  as  it  was  benevolent,  inas- 

159 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

much  as  the  mass  of  the  individuals  at  New  Harmony 
were  not  prepared  for  so  advanced  a  measure. 

"  Whether  the  project  was  executed  in  the  best  and 
most  prudent  manner,  it  is  not  for  us  to  judge.  We  are  too 
inexperienced  in  its  practise  to  hazard  a  judgment  on  the 
prudence  of  the  various  individuals  who  directed  its  exe- 
cution, and  the  one  opinion  we  can  express  with  confidence 
is  of  the  perseverance  with  which  Eobert  Owen  prosecuted 
it  at  great  pecuniary  loss  to  himself.  One  form  of  govern- 
ment was  first  adopted,  and  when  that  appeared  unsuited 
to  the  actual  state  of  the  members  another  was  tried  in  its 
place,  until  it  appeared  that  the  whole  population,  numer- 
ous as  they  were,  were  too  various  in  their  feelings,  too 
dissimilar  in  their  habits,  to  unite  and  govern  themselves 
harmoniously  as  one  community,  and  they  separated, 
therefore,  into  three,  each  remaining  perfectly  independent 
of  Robert  Owen.  But  these  societies  were  again  incautious 
in  their  admission  of  members,  and  it  soon  became  evident 
that  their  size  was  too  unwieldy  for  their  practical  knowl- 
edge. Two  of  them  abandoned  their  separate  independ- 
ence, and  requested  Eobert  Owen,  with  the  assistance  of 
four  trustees,  to  take  the  general  superintendence  of  affairs, 
which  were  getting  into  some  confusion.  Only  the  third 
society,  called  the  educational,  continued,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  William  Maclure,  and  still  continues  its  original 
and  separate  form. 

"  Thus  was  another  attempt  made  to  unite  into  a  com- 
munity of  common  property  and  equal  rights,  but  it  soon 
became  too  apparent  to  the  trustees  in  whom  the  manage- 
ment was  vested  that  the  establishment  did  not  pay  its 
own  expenses.  Therefore  some  decisive  changes  became 
necessary  to  arrest  this  continued  loss  of  property,  thus, 
by  rendering  the  society  successful  in  a  pecuniary  way, 
to  secure  its  independence  of  foreign  assistance. 

"  The  deficiency  in  production  appeared  immediately 
attributable  in  part  to  carelessness  of  many  members  as 

160 


COMMUNITY  DISINTEGRATION 

regarded  the  community  property;  in  part  to  their  want 
of  interest  in  the  experiment  itself — the  only  true  incite- 
ment to  community  industry — and  the  discordant  variety 
of  habits  among  them.  The  circle  was  so  large,  and  the 
operations  it  embraced  so  various  and  extensive,  that  the 
confidence  of  minds  untrained  in  the  correct  principles, 
and  able  to  see  but  a  small  part  of  the  whole,  who  had 
witnessed,  too,  the  various  previous  changes,  was  shaken. 
Their  care  and  their  exertions  diminished  with  their  con- 
fidence in  themselves,  and  the  natural  consequences  ensued. 

"A  remedy  presented  itself  in  the  voluntary  associa- 
tion, out  of  the  population  of  New  Harmony,  of  those 
individuals  together  who  had  confidence  in  one  another's 
intentions,  and  mutual  enjoyment  in  one  another's  society. 
Land  and  assistance  for  the  first  year  were  offered  to  those 
who  chose  to  unite  in  this  plan,  and  the  consequence  was 
the  formation  of  another  community  on  the  New  Har- 
mony lands. 

"  And  we  regret  that  for  those  who  remained  in  town 
the  only  effectual  and  immediate  remedy  appeared  to  be 
in  circumscribing  each  other's  interests  and  responsibility. 
As  the  circle  was  too  large  for  their  present  habits  and 
experiences,  smaller  circles  were  described  within  it.  The 
community  was  subdivided  into  occupations,  each  of  which 
became  responsible  for  its  operations  alone. 

"  And  this  is  the  present  situation  in  New  Harmony. 
Each  occupation  supports  itself,  paying  weekly  a  small 
percentage  toward  the  general  expenses  of  the  town.  Each 
regulates  its  own  affairs,  determining  its  own  internal 
regulations  and  distributing  its  produce. 

"  New  Harmony,  therefore,  is  not  now  a  community ; 
but,  as  was  originally  intended,  a  central  village,  out  of 
and  around  which  communities  have  formed,  and  may 
continue  to  form  themselves,  and  with  the  inhabitants  of 
which  these  communities  may  exchange  their  products 
thus  obtained  for  those  manufactured  articles  which  the 
13  161 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

limited  operations  incidental  to  the  incipient  colonies  do 
not  enable  them  to  produce  themselves. 

"  Let  us  not,  then,  be  misunderstood,  for  it  is  important 
that  our  friends  should  know  the  exact  position  on  which 
we  stand,  more  particularly  those  who  may  wish  to  Join  us 
here.  It  is  not  in  the  town  itself,  but  on  the  lands  of 
Harmony,  that  the  community  system  is  in  progressive 
operation. 

"  About  a  year  ago,  and  soon  after  the  formation  of  the 
community  in  this  town,  a  number  of  families,  separating 
from  the  principal  body,  located  themselves  on  the  lands 
at  about  a  mile  eastward  from  the  town  and  founded  the 
community  of  Feiba  Peveli,  or  Number  3.  It  has  pro- 
gressed successfully,  and  we  believe  that  its  members  are 
now  convinced  by  present  experience  of  the  benefits  of 
the  social  system. 

"  In  addition  to  community  Number  4,  whose  lands  lie 
south  of  the  town,  we  have  now  to  notice  the  commence- 
ment of  another  community,  whose  formation  preceded  the 
separation  into  occupations.  The  land  of  this  community 
is  situated  about  two  miles  distant  from  the  town,  on  both 
sides  of  the  Princeton  road. 

"  The  communities  commenced  on  a  small  scale,  in- 
tending to  increase  their  membership  gradually.  They 
will  afford  an  example  of  how  easy  it  is  to  begin  a  co- 
operative community  in  a  simple  manner,  with  little  capi- 
tal, provided  industry  and  good  feeling  exist  among  the 
members.  Their  progress  will  not  probably  be  sudden 
and  astonishing,  but  it  will  be  constant. 

"  Another  society,  Macluria,  or  Number  2,  which  sep- 
arated from  the  principal  community  about  the  same  time 
that  Number  3  was  formed,  and  continued  its  operations 
for  about  a  year,  succeeded  perfectly  from  an  economical 
point  of  view.  Their  original  motive  for  secession  was,  in 
part,  we  believe,  a  religious  one,  and  we  have  been  told 
that  their  subsequent  dissolution  was  attributable  to  a 

162 


COMMUNITY   DISINTEGRATION 

similar  cause.  Their  lands  have  been  taken  by  a  party  of 
German  settlers,  to  the  number  of  about  fifteen  families, 
who  have  already  disposed  of  their  property  and  will  arrive 
here  probably  next  month  to  commence  a  community  of 
mutual  labor  and  common  property/ 


j> 


While  Eobert  Owen  was  making  his  preparations  to 
depart  for  Europe,  the  trouble  which  had  long  been  brew- 
ing between  him  and  Mr.  Maclure — a  natural  result  of  the 
association  of  two  leaders  of  such  marked  individuality — 
developed  into  an  open  quarrel,  and  the  closing  year  of  the 
communistic  experiments  witnessed  a  dispute  over  indi- 
vidual property  between  the  joint  projectors  of  the  new 
social  and  educational  system.  Under  date  of  April 
30th  the  following  was  posted  in  public  places : 

NOTICE. 

Notice  is  hereby  given  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  fore- 
warning them  not  to  trust  Robert  Owen  on  my  account,  as  I 
am  determined  not  to  pay  any  debts  of  his,  or  in  any  way  be 
responsible  for  any  transaction  he  may  have  done  or  may  at- 
tempt to  do  in  my  name. 

WUiLIAM  MACIiURE. 

Within  a  few  hours  the  town  store  contained  the  follow- 
ing retaliatory 

NOTICE. 

Having  just  now  seen  the  very  extraordinary  advertisement 
put  upon  some  of  the  houses  in  this  place,  and  signed  by 
William  Maclure,  it  becomes  necessary  in  my  own  defense  to 
inform  the  public  that  the  partnership  between  William 
Maclure  and  myself  is  in  full  force,  and  that  I  shall  pay  any 
contract  made  either  by  William  Maclure  or  myself  on  the 
partnership  account. 

Robert  Owen. 
163 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

Next  da}^,  Paul  Brown  declares,  Maclure  prosecuted 
Owen  for  the  recovery  of  forty  thousand  dollars,  with  a 
view  of  making  him  give  a  deed  in  fee  simple  for  the 
property  Maclure  had  bought,  or  refunding  such  amount  of 
money.  Owen  retaliated  by  getting  out  a  writ  against 
Maclure  for  ninety  thousand  dollars.  A  compromise. 
Brown  says,  was  finally  effected,  and  Owen  gave  to  Maclure 
a  deed  in  fee  simple  for  his  share  of  the  property. 

Eobert  Owen  made  the  following  statement  in  regard  to 
the  trouble:  The  friends  of  Mr.  Maclure  proposed  that 
Mr.  Owen  and  Mr.  Maclure  each  put  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  into  the  experiment  just  to  be  tried 
at  New  Harmony,  and  Mr.  Owen  consented.  Mr.  Ma- 
clure's  liability,  at  his  request,  was  limited  to  ten  thousand 
dollars.  Mr.  Maclure  went  on  to  New  Harmony  to  estab- 
lish the  Pestalozzian  system.  He  failed  to  do  it  with  any 
degree  of  swiftness,  and  Mr.  Owen  and  the  population 
itself  became  impatient.  Mr.  Maclure  thought  he  could 
do  better  with  part  of  the  property  under  his  control,  and 
requested  that  a  portion  be  set  apart  for  him.  Mr.  Owen 
did  not  want  such  a  division,  not  wishing  the  town  hall 
to  be  separated  from  the  community  population,  and  so 
would  not  consent.  Eapp  had  been  paid  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  by  Owen,  and  notes  had  been  made  for 
forty  thousand  more.  Eapp  came  after  twenty  thousand 
dollars  when  it  was  due,  and  wanted  twenty  thousand 
dollars  that  was  due  a  year  later.  Owen  paid  the  first 
twenty  thousand  dollars.  Maclure  refused  to  pay  a  cent 
toward  this  unless  Owen  would  give  him  an  unrestricted 
deed  to  the  property  which  he  had  sold  under  restrictions. 
Maclure  finally  paid  Eapp,  and  after  getting  the  bonds  in 
his  possession  he  had  Owen  arrested  and  posted  a  notice 
disclaiming  any  intention  to  pay  any  of  Owen's  obliga- 
tion. A  board  of  arbitration  decided  Maclure  to  be  five 
thousand  dollars  in  Owen's  debt.  Mr.  Owen  had,  he  sup- 
posed, irritated  Mr.  Maclure,  for  he  had  inaugurated  a 

164 


COMMUNITY   DISINTEGRATION 

separate   S5^stem   of  education   in  New   Harmony,  inde- 
pendent of  Mr.  Maclure's. 

A.  J.  Macdonald,  who  spent  some  time  at  Xew  Har- 
mony, long  enough  after  the  trouble  had  subsided  to  make 
possible  an  impartial  judgment  of  the  controversy,  says 
that  the  trouble  "  was  most  likely  attributable  to  the  fact 
that  Owen  commenced  a  system  of  education  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Dorsey,  differing  from  that  of  Maclure. 
Mr.  Maclure  had  advanced  only  a  small  portion  of  the  pur- 
chase money  for  the  Eappite  property,  and  after  the 
formation  of  Macluria  refused  to  pay  any  more  without 
receiving  from  Mr.  Owen  a  deed  for  the  property  he  held. 
This  Mr.  Owen  refused,  unless  the  restriction  relative  to 
the  property  being  used  forever  for  community  purposes 
was  allowed  to  remain.  The  difficulty  was,  however,  made 
up,  and  Mr.  Maclure  afterward  paid  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars and  a  balance  of  five  thousand." 


165 


CHAPTER   XVII 

ROBERT  Owen's  farewell  addresses 

**Mr.  Owen*s  generosity  and  sincerity  will  survive  all  the  sneers 
which  have  been  cast  upon  them.  His  reward  for  his  losses  has  been 
the  consciousness  of  spending  his  time  and  means  in  doing  good ! 
Those  who  have  shared  his  bounties  or  caught  some  of  the  sympathy 
elicited  through  his  influence  and  diffused  among  those  who  desired  to 
practise  his  benevolence,  will  look  back  as  long  as  they  live  to  the 
brief  space  when,  amidst  surrounding  conflictions,  they  tasted  a  par- 
ticle of  true  happiness  on  earth !  " — Macdonald. 

On  Sunday,  May  26,  1827,  Robert  Owen  delivered  at 
New  Harmony  Hall  a  "farewell  address  to  the  citizens 
of  New  Harmony  and  the  members  of  the  neighboring 
communities." 

"  A  second  year/'  he  said,  "  has  just  expired  since  the 
experiment  was  commenced  in  this  place  to  supersede  the 
individual  by  the  cooperative  system  of  union  and  equality, 
under  the  form  of  a  Preliminary  Society. 

"It  is  known  to  you  that  the  persons  who  composed 
this  society  were  entire  strangers  to  each  other ;  that  some 
had  come  from  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  some  from 
almost  every  kingdom  in  Europe;  that  the  society  was 
instituted  to  enable  these  persons  to  become  acquainted 
with  each  other,  so  that  those  who  were  capable  of  acting 
faithfully  and  cordially  together  might  afterward  form  a 
community  upon  the  social  system;  that  after  the  Pre- 
liminary Society  was  constituted  and  the  members  had 
elected  a  committee  to  govern  themselves,  I  went  to  Europe 
and  returned  again  in  about  nine  months;  that  soon  after 

166 


ROBERT   OWEN'S   FAREWELL   ADDRESSES 

my  return  it  was  proposed  that  a  community  of  common 
property  and  equality  should  be  formed  from  among  the 
members  of  the  Preliminary  Society^  and  many  of  you 
know  that  it  was  my  intention  that  the  society  should 
at  first  consist  of  those  only  who  had  acquired  confidence 
in  each  other's  qualifi^sations  for  such  a  state  of  society, 
and  it  is  also  known  to  many  who  are  present  that  this 
intention  was  frustrated  by  a  motion  being  made  at  one  of 
the  public  meetings  that  all  the  members  of  the  Pre- 
liminary Society  should  be  admitted  members  of  the  com- 
munity. This  motion  was  too  popular  to  be  resisted  by 
those  who  did  not  otherwise  expect  to  become  members. 
From  that  period  the  most  intelligent  among  the  popula- 
tion foresaw  that  this  measure  would  retard  the  formation 
of  one  large,  united  community  in  this  town  of  Harmony ; 
there  were  too  many  opposing  habits  and  feelings  to  permit 
such  a  mass,  without  more  instruction  in  the  system,  to  act 
as  one  cordially  together. 

"  This  .singularly  constituted  mass,  however,  contained 
materials  out  of  which,  by  patience  and  perseverance, 
several  communities  might  be  ultimately  formed;  and  all 
my  subsequent  measures  were  directed  to  accomplish  this 
object. 

"  Although  many  here  at  that  time  were  unprepared  to 
be  members  of  the  community  of  common  property  and 
equality,  yet  there  was  much  good  feeling  among  the 
population  generally.  And  if  the  schools  had  been  in 
operation  upon  the  very  superior  plan  upon  which  I  had 
been  led  to  expect  they  would  be,  so  as  to  convince  parents, 
by  ocular  demonstration,  of  the  benefits  which  their  chil- 
dren would  immediately  derive  from  the  system,  it  would 
have  been,  I  think,  practicable,  even  with  such  materials, 
with  the  patience  and  perseverance  which  would  have  been 
applied  to  the  subject,  to  have  succeeded  in  amalgamating 
the  whole  into  a  community. 

"  As  these  difficulties  regarding  the  education  of  our 

167 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

children  were  to  be  overcome,  as  well  as  many  others  to 
which  this  gave  rise,  I  waited  patiently  for  such  change 
of  circumstances  as  would  enable  me  to  make  progress 
toward  my  object.  With  deep  interest  I  attended  to  the 
various  changes  which  the  different  parties  desired  to  make, 
and  I  always  met  their  wishes  as  far  as  circumstances 
would  permit.  I  did  so  because  I  had  not  yet  attained 
sufficient  knowledge  of  the  persons  or  of  the  country  to 
act  with  my  customary  decision. 

"  These  changes  gave  me  a  more  speedy  insight  into  the 
character  of  the  population,  and  enabled  me  to  obtain  a 
better  knowledge  of  those  who  were  in  some  degree  pre- 
pared for  the  social  system.  They  also  elicited  knowledge 
of  the  means  by  which  future  communities  might  be  most 
easily  and  safely  formed;  and  to  me  this  was  invaluable 
experience,  to  be  hereafter  applied  for  the  benefit  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  country  and  of  Great  Britain. 

"  Among  those  who  first  came  here  were  many  with 
whom  none  could  be  found  to  unite  in  communities.  These 
persons  became  a  great  obstacle  in  the  progress  of  our 
proceedings.  It  was  necessary  for  the  safety,  comfort,  and 
happiness  of  those  who  remained,  and  for  the  success  of 
the  system  itself,  that  they  should  remove.  Difficulty  arose 
from  the  expense  of  their  removal,  and  from  the  necessity 
of  informing  them  that  they  were  not  such  members  as 
would  be  admitted  into  the  communities.  If  I  paid  for 
the  removal  of  one  family,  all  would  expect  to  be  assisted 
in  a  like  manner,  an  expenditure  my  funds  would  not 
admit  of,  after  the  large  sums  which  had  been  previously 
expended  in  the  experiment;  and  no  one  would  like  to  be 
informed  that  none  could  be  found  who  would  admit  them 
to  become  members  of  their  community.  This,  however, 
was  a  difficulty  which  it  was  absolutely  necessary,  for  the 
sake  of  all,  should  be  overcome. 

"  That  every  one  might  have  a  fair  and  equal  chance, 
I  proposed  to  supply  land  in  proportion  to  numbers,  on 

168 


ROBERT   OWEN'S   FAREWELL   ADDRESSES 

the  estate  of  Harmony,  to  all  who  would  associate,  even 
in  small  numbers,  to  commence  a  community,  and  that 
they  should  be  aided  in  food  and  implements  of  hus- 
bandry to  the  extent  that  our  means  would  afford,  and  this 
was  a  public  offer,  made  equally  to  all,  and  those  who  came 
here  with  a  view  of  forming  communities  accepted  it,  and 
are  now  industriously  occupied  in  preparing  crops  for  this 
season. 

"  Those  persons  who  would  not,  or  could  not,  so  connect 
themselves,  were  informed  that  they  must  leave  Harmony 
or  support  themselves  by  their  own  industry,  or  until  they 
could  find  persons  of  good  character  who  would  join  them 
in  forming  a  community. 

"  This  measure,  unpleasant  as  it  was  to  my  feelings, 
became  unavoidable  to  prevent  the  entire  loss  of  the  prop- 
erty which  had  been  appropriated  to  carry  on  the  experi- 
ment ;  and  by  this  course  of  proceedings,  those  persons  who 
were  in  a  condition  to  promote  the  social  system,  were 
relieved  from  the  permanent  support  of  those  individuals 
who  were  daily  diminishing  the  fund  which  had  been  de- 
voted for  the  more  general  beneficial  purposes. 

"  Under  these  circumstances,  many  families,  as  you 
know,  left  New  Harmony,  with  their  feelings  more  or  less 
hurt,  and,  in  proportion  to  the  knowledge  and  love  of  the 
principles  really  possessed  by  each  of  them,  are  no  doubt 
active  in  their  statements  for  or  against  my  proceedings 
and  for  or  against  the  social  system. 

"  This  period,  the  most  unpleasant  and  trying  of  any 
which  I  have  had  to  pass  through — for  my  object  in  com- 
ing here  was  to  benefit  all,  and,  if  possible,  to  injure  none — - 
has,  happily,  passed.  The  social  system  is  now  firmly 
established;  the  natural  and  easy  means  of  forming  com- 
munities have  been  developed  by  your  past  experience. 
Already  eight  independent  communities  have  been  formed 
upon  the  New  Harmony  estate,  exclusive  of  Mr.  Maclure's 
educational  society  and  of  the  town  of  New  Harmony, 

169 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

which  has  naturally  become  the  place  for  the  reception  of 
strangers  who  have  the  desire  to  join  some  of  the  existing 
communities,  or  of  forming  others. 

"  New  Harmony  is  now,  therefore,  literally  surrounded 
by  independent  communities,  and  applications  are  made 
almost  daily  by  persons,  who  come  from  far  and  near,  to  be 
permitted  to  establish  themselves  in  a  similar  manner. 
The  essential  difference  between  our  first  and  the  present 
proceedings  is  this :  at  the  commencement,  strangers  to 
each  others'  characters,  principles,  habits,  views,  and  senti- 
ments were  associated  together  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
each  other  and  to  learn  the  practise  of  the  social  system; 
now,  those  only  associate  in  communities  who  were  pre- 
viously well  acquainted  with  each  other,  and  possess  simi- 
lar habits,  sentiments,  and  feelings,  and  who  have  made 
some  advance  in  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  the  principles 
and  practises  prerequisite  to  be  known  by  those  who  become 
members  of  communities  of  equality  and  common  prop- 
erty. Experience  has  proved  that  between  these  two  modes 
of  proceeding  the  difference  is  great  indeed. 

"  Since  those  persons  have  removed  from  New  Har- 
mony who  from  one  cause  or  another  were  disposed  to 
leave  us,  the  remainder  of  the  population  are,  you  perceive, 
gradually  taking  those  situations  best  suited  to  their  in- 
clinations and  former  habits,  and  in  some  instances  the 
occupations  have  formed  among  themselves  a  kind  of 
preparatory  society  and  are  doing  well.  The  lands  of  the 
communities  around  us  have  been  put  into  a  good  state 
of  cultivation,  and  are  well  fenced;  there  is,  as  you  see, 
at  this  time,  every  appearance  of  abundance  of  fruit,  all 
kinds  of  food  and  materials  for  clothing,  and  no  want  of 
industry  to  preserve  the  former  and  to  manufacture  the 
latter.  Upward  of  thirty  cabins  have  lately  been  erected 
upon  the  lands  of  communities  Numbers  2,  3,  and  4,  and 
yet  not  a  spare  room  can  be  obtained  for  any  who  come 
to  us. 

170 


ROBERT   OWEN'S  FAREWELL   ADDRESSES 

"  The  town  and  immediate  vicinity  of  New  Harmony 
have  been,  as  you  perceive,  greatly  improved  lately,  and 
other  important  improvements  are  in  progress.  No  site 
for  a  number  of  communities  in  close  union  together  can 
be  found  finer  than  that  which  surrounds  us;  its  natural 
situation  and  the  variety  of  its  productions  exceeds  any- 
thing I  have  ever  seen  in  Europe  or  America;  the  rich 
land,  intermixed  with  islands,  woods,  rivers,  and  hills  in  a 
beautiful  proportion  to  each  other,  presents,  from  our  high 
ground,  a  prospect  which  highly  gratifies  every  intelligent 
stranger.  It  is  true,  misconceptions  of  our  proceedings 
and  of  our  present  state  have  gone  forth  to  the  great  grief 
of  those  who  were  looking  forward  with  an  intense  interest 
to  an  amelioration  of  the  classes  from  the  measures  which 
were  to  commence  here ;  but  these  reports  have  been  bene- 
ficial. They  have  prevented  us  from  being  overwhelmed 
with  numbers. 

"  These  operations  have  been  going  on  so  successfully 
that  perhaps  no  pleasure  has  been  more  pure  than  that 
which  I  have  enjoyed  for  some  time  past  in  my  daily  visits 
to  some  of  these  establishments,  where,  by  the  industry  of 
the  persons  engaged,  I  see  the  sure  foundations  laid  of 
independence  for  themselves  and  for  their  children's  chil- 
dren through  many  generations.  From  the  new  order  of 
influences  arising  around  them  they  must  become  a  su- 
perior race — intelligent,  virtuous,  and  happy ;  beings  whose 
chief  occupation,  after  a  few  years  of  temperance  and  in- 
dustry, will  be  to  distribute  to  others  the  means  of  becom- 
ing as  independent,  prudent,  happy,  and  useful  as  them- 
selves. 

"  I  had  also  made  my  arrangements  to  settle,  before  my 
departure  from  Europe,  every  outstanding  account  against 
myself  and  those  concerned  with  me  in  this  establishment 
and  experiment,  that  no  obstacle  should  remain  after  my 
departure  to  impede  the  progress  and  success  of  the  young 
colonies ;  and,  looking  back  through  the  two  years  just  ex- 

171 


TEE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

pired,  I  could  not  but  feel  an  almost  inexpressible  delight 
and  inward  satisfaction  from  reflecting  upon  the  obstacles 
which  had  been  overcome,  and  from  viewing  in  the  mind^s 
eye  the  cheering  prospects  which  are  before  us. 

"  While  preparing  for  my  journey  to  Europe,  and  just 
as  I  was  going  to  set  out,  an  event  occurred  which  arose, 
as  I  must  believe,  from  some  extraordinary  misconception 
in  the  minds  of  our  well-meaning  friends,  which,  fortu- 
nately, has  delayed  me  some  days  among  you.  These  mis- 
conceptions are,  I  believe,  now  completely  removed,  and  I 
have  had,  by  this  delay,  the  pleasure  of  receiving  and  of 
becoming  acquainted  with  some  highly  respectable  families 
from  the  South,  who  have  traveled  several  hundred  miles 
on  purpose  to  live  some  time  among  you,  and  to  make 
themselves  familiar  with  the  new  system." 

On  May  27th  Mr.  Owen  delivered  an  address,  full 
of  parting  counsel,  to  "  the  ten  social  colonies  of  equality 
and  common  property  on  the  New  Harmony  estate," — 
the  two  additional  communities  being  colonies  of  Ger- 
mans, one  from  Pennsylvania,  and  one  from  Germany, 
as  we  learn  from  the  Gazette  of  May  23d.  "  With  the 
right  understanding  of  the  principles  upon  which  your 
change  from  the  old  to  the  new  has  been  made,"  he  said  in 
part,  "  you  will  attain  your  object.  Without  that  under- 
standing you  can  not  succeed.  You  should  have  honesty 
of  purpose;  devotion  to  the  success  of  each  and  all  com- 
munities; confidence  in  one  another  and  submission  to 
majority  rule;  well-regulated  industry  and  wise  econom}''; 
to  make  provision  for  the  schools  should  be  an  object  of 
first  importance.  .  .  .  Industry,  economy,  beauty, 
order,  and  good  feeling  are  silently  and  gradually  growing 
up  around  you,  and  the  right  spirit  of  the  great  system, 
not  derived  from  enthusiasm  or  imagination,  but  from  a 
real  knowledge  of  your  own  nature  and  of  your  true  in- 
terest, is  gaining  ground  among  you,  and  can  not  fail  soon 
to  become  general.     .      .      .     New  Harmony  can  not  be 

172 


ROBERT   OWEN'S  FAREWELL   ADDRESSES 

numbered  among  the  colonies  of  the  social  system,  but  there 
is  progress,  and  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  it  will 
join  the  ranks  of  the  faithful.     .     .     . 

"  With  regard  to  the  schools,  it  is  my  desire  that  all 
your  children  should  be  educated  in  the  best  manner  and 
at  the  least  expense  to  you.  I  should  like  to  add,  without 
any  expense  to  you;  this  would  be  the  proceeding  most 
gratifying  to  my  feelings  that  could  now  occur ;  but  having 
expended  a  large  capital  in  putting  you  into  your  present 
independent  condition;  having  paid  for  the  whole  of  the 
real  and  personal  property  that  I  purchased  since  I  came 
to  this  country,  and  having  discharged  every  other  debt,  I 
do  not  yet  know  whether  my  remaining  income  will  en- 
able me,  with  the  prudence  that  is  necessary  in  my  situa- 
tion, to  undertake  to  clothe,  feed,  and  educate  all  your 
children  without  cost,  or  with  such  aid  from  your  surplus 
produce  as  you  can  spare  without  inconvenience.  Eelying, 
however,  upon  the  faithful  stewardship  of  the  parties  in 
whose  hands  the  remaining  property  which  I  possess  here 
has  been  entrusted,  I  shall  appropriate  three  thousand 
dollars  this  year  toward  defraying  the  expenses  of  this 
all-important  subject,  the  general  direction  of  which  I 
leave  to  Mr.  Dorsey,  late  treasurer  of  Miami  University, 
in  whose  steadfastness,  integrity,  ability,  and  disinterested 
devotion  to  the  cause  I  have  full  confidence. 

"When  I  return  I  hope  to  find  you  progressing  in 
harmony  together.^^ 

On  June  1,  1827,  Mr.  Owen  left  New  Harmony  for 
England,  stopping  en  route  to  New  York  in  several  cities 
to  deliver  lectures  on  the  social  system,  and  to  paint  hope- 
ful pictures  of  conditions  at  New  Harmony. 


173 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

THE    TEN    LOST    TRIBES    OF    COMMUNISM 

.  Robert  Owen  had  met  the  Waterloo  of  his  communis- 
tic schemes,  but  he  retired  from  a  field  of  hopeless  defeat  as 
if  he  had  been  the  Wellington,  rather  than  the  Napoleon, 
of  the  contest.  It  soon  became  evident  that  the  enthusias- 
tic spirit  of  Robert  Owen,  with  the  funds  at  his  command, 
had  alone  kept  the  population  so  long  together  in  the 
semblance  of  communistic  association.  With  the  com- 
mander-in-chief gone  the  little  army  broke  into  disastrous 
retreat  before  the  self-assertive  forces  of  individualism. 
The  last  evidence  of  the  existence  of  anv  of  the  commu- 
nistic  societies  is  a  report  of  a  Harvest  Home  celebration 
by  Feiba  Peveli  on  July  26,  1827,  when  "  fifty  persons 
sat  down  to  an  excellent  supper  laid  out  on  the  lawn  near 
their  village;  the  utmost  order  prevailed,  and  appro- 
priate songs  and  toasts  added  to  the  hilarity  of  the  eve- 
ning." One  by  one  these  societies  became  disorganized 
by  dissension,  and  when  Robert  Owen  returned  to  New 
Harmony,  on  April  1,  1828,  his  optimism  failed  in  the 
face  of  a  complete  collapse  of  the  "  social  system,"  though 
his  confession  of  defeat  was  a  grudging  one. 

"  I  had  hoped,"  he  said,  in  an  address  delivered  at 
New  Harmony  Hall  on  April  13,  1828,  "  that  fifty  years 
of  political  liberty  had  prepared  the  American  people 
to  govern  themselves  advantageously.  I  supplied  land, 
houses,  and  the  use  of  capital,  «nd  I  tried,  each  in  their 
own  way,  the  different  parties  who  collected  here;  and 
experience  proved  that  the  attempt  was  premature,  to  unite 

174 


THE   TEN  LOST   TRIBES   OF   COMMUNISM 

a  number  of  strangers  not  previously  educated  for  the 
purpose.  I  afterward  tried  what  could  be  done  by  those 
who  associated  through  their  own  choice  and  in  small 
numbers;  to  those  I  gave  leases  of  large  tracts  of  good 
land  for  ten  thousand  years  for  a  nominal  rent,  and  upon 
moral  conditions  only ;  and  these  I  did  expect  would  have 
made  progress  during  my  absence;  and  now  upon  my  re- 
turn I  find  that  the  habits  of  the  individual  system  were  so 
powerful  that  these  leases  have  been,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, applied  for  individual  purposes  and  individual  gain, 
and  in  consequence  they  must  return  again  into  my  hands. 

"  This  proves  that  families,  trained  in  the  individual 
system,  have  not  acquired  those  moral  characteristics  of 
forbearance  and  charity  necessary  for  confidence  and  har- 
mony; and  communities,  to  be  successful,  must  consist  of 
persons  devoid  of  prejudice,  and  possessed  of  moral  feel- 
ings in  unison  with  the  laws  of  human  nature. 

"  Monopolies  have  been  established  in  certain  depart- 
ments without  my  indorsement;  it  was  not  my  intention 
to  have  a  petty  store  and  whisky  shop  here. 

"I  can  only  feel  regret,  instead  of  anger,"  said  Mr. 
Owen,  in  closing.  "  My  intention  now  is  to  form  such 
arrangements  on  the  estate  as  will  enable  those  who  desire 
to  promote  the  practise  of  the  social  system,  to  live  in 
separate  families  on  the  individual  system  and  yet  to  unite 
their  general  labor;  or  to  exchange  labor  for  labor  on  the 
most  beneficial  terms  for  all;  all  to  do  both  or  neither  as 
their  feelings  or  apparent  interest  may  influence  them; 
while  the  children  shall  be  educated  with  a  view  to  the 
establishment  of  the  social  system  in  the  future.  . 
I  will  not  be  discouraged  by  any  obstacle,  but  will  per- 
severe to  the  end." 

Some  of  the  leases  offered  by  Eobert  Owen  to  small 
communistic  societies  in  1827,  were  taken  by  sincere  and 
industrious  workers;  others  were  obtained  by  speculators, 
who  cared  nothing  for  Owen  or  his  schemes.     To  those 

175 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

who  had  acted  in  good  faith,  Mr.  Owen  finally  sold,  at  a 
low  figure,  the  lands  they  occupied.  Through  the  specu- 
lators he  lost  a  large  amount  of  personal  property.  His 
expenditures  in  the  purchase  and  maintenance  of  the  prop- 
ert}^,  with  his  losses  by  adventurers,  aggregated  two  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars — his  entire  fortune  at  the  beginning 
of  the  experiment  amounting  to  but  fifty  thousand  dollars 
more.  Had  the  community  system  proved  practicable,  his 
intention  was  to  deed  this  land  in  trust  to  the  associations 
without  exacting  any  payment  whatever.  What  was  left 
of  his  fortune  he  soon  expended  in  the  furtherance  of 
similar  social  schemes.  As  some  one  has  said :  "  He  seems 
to  have  felt  it  a  point  of  honor,  so  long  as  he  had  means 
left,  to  avert  reproach  from  the  cause  of  cooperation  by 
paying  debts  left  standing  at  the  close  of  unsuccessful 
experiments,  whenever  these  had  been  conducted  in  good 
faith."  In  later  years  he  conveyed  the  residue  of  the  New 
Harmony  estate  to  his  four  sons,  only  requiring  of  them 
that  they  execute  a  deed  of  trust  for  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars' worth  of  land,  which  yielded  an  annuity  of  fifteen 
hundred  dollars.  This  was  his  sole  source  of  support  for 
many  years. 

It  is  impossible  to  trace  the  processes  by  which  the 
property  of  the  various  communities  passed  into  individual 
hands.  Dr.  Schnack  says  that  Messrs.  John  Cooper,  James 
Elliot,  James  Maidlow,  Jonathan  Stocker,  and  others  con- 
tinued community  Number  3  under  the  original  lease  for 
several  years,  but  that  at  the  dissolution  of  the  organiza- 
tion the  property  was  bought  and  divided  by  Messrs. 
Cooper,  Maidlow,  and  Elliot.  The  lease  of  community 
Number  2  finally  came  into  the  hands  of  Jacob  Schnee,  the 
postmaster  at  New  Harmony  during  community  days,  and 
later  was  merged  in  a  purchase  by  W.  C.  Pelham.  Other 
individuals  undertook  the  management  of  the  several  fac- 
tories, but  with  little  success,  so  that  the  buildings  were 
finally  diverted  to  other  purposes  than  that  of  manufactur- 

176 


THE  TEN  LOST  TUlBES   OF  COMMUNISM 

ing.  So  many  of  the  communists  remained  in  New  Har- 
mony and  its  immediate  vicinity^  that  Dr.  Schnack,  with 
the  assistance  of  several  old  residents,  compiled  in  1890 
the  following  list  of  New  Harmony  family  names  which 
still  survive  the  community  period:  Beal,  Birkbeck  (de- 
scendants of  Morris  Birkbeck,  of  the  English  colony  in 
Edwards  County,  who  was  drowned  in  Fox  Eiver  while  re- 
turning to  Albion,  Illinois,  from  a  visit  to  the  commu- 
nity), Bolton,  Brown,  Cooper,  Cox,  Dransfield,  Duclos, 
Evans,  Fauntleroy,  Fretageot,  Gex,  Grant,  Hugo,  Johnson, 
Lichtenberger,  Bennett,  West,  Lyons,  Mumford,  Murphy, 
Neef,  Owen,  Parvin,  Pelham,  Eobson,  Sampson,  Schnee, 
Snelling,  Soper,  Twigg,  Warren,  and  Wheatcroft. 

A.  J.  Macdonald,  in  his  unpublished  manuscript  on 
American  Communities,  gives  the  data  contained  in  the 
following  table  concerning  the  communistic  societies,  ex- 
clusive of  those  located  on  the  New  Harmony  estate,  which 
had  their  origin  in  the  Owenite  movement: 


Name. 

Place. 

Capital. 

Debt. 

DUBATION. 

Blue  Spring  . . . 

Monroe  Co.,  Ind". 

One  year. 

Cooperative 

Society 

Valley  Forge,  Pa. 

Coxsackie 

New  York. 

Small. 

Large. 

Between  1 

* 

and  2  vrs. 

Forrestville 

Indiana. 

325  acres 
of  land. 

1  year. 

Franklin 

New  York. 

Harerstraw  (80 

members) 

New  York. 

120  acres 
of  land. 

$12,000. 

5  months. 

Kendal  (200 

members) 

Ohio. 

200  acres 
of  land. 

2  years. 

Nashoba 

Tennessee. 

2,000  acres 
of  land. 

3  years. 

Yellow  Springs 

(100  families). 

Ohio. 

13 


177 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

The  total  number  of  communities  was  nineteen;  of 
which  twelve  were  situated  in  Indiana,  three  in  New  York, 
two  in  Ohio,  one  in  Pennsylvania,  and  one  in  Tennessee. 
It  is  certain  that  this  list  is  not  complete.  In  southwestern 
Indiana,  especially,  the  communistic  fever  was  prevalent 
during  the  years  through  which  the  New  Harmony  ex- 
periment continued  and  many  neighborhoods  were  affected 
by  it.  In  some  cases  branches  of  families  united  in  com- 
munistic association  for  brief  periods.  By  1830  not  an 
association  was  left  to  continue  the  movement  so  auspi- 
ciously inaugurated  by  Eobert  Owen  five  years  before. 

Explanations  of  the  failure  of  the  Owenite  communi- 
ties have  been  as  numerous  as  commentarians  upon  them. 
The  most  comprehensive  estimate  of  the  causes  leading  to 
failure  is  that  of  Macdonald,  who  spent  eighteen  months 
at  New  Harmony  in  1853-54,  twent3^-five  years  after  the 
last  vestige  of  communistic  association  disappeared  from 
the  estate.  His  remarks  are  interesting.  "  I  was  cau- 
tioned," he  said,  "  not  to  speak  on  socialism,  as  the  subject 
was  unpopular.  The  advice  was  good — socialism  was  un- 
popular, and  with  good  reason.  The  people  had  been 
wearied  and  disappointed,  had  been  filled  full  of  theories 
until  they  were  nauseated,  and  had  made  such  miserable 
attempts  at  practise  that  they  seemed  ashamed  of  what 
they  had  been  doing.  An  enthusiastic  socialist  would  soon 
be  '  cooled  down,^  because  the  people  would  see  his  ig- 
norance. 

"  During  a  residence  of  nearly  eighteen  months  in  New 
Harmony,  I  endeavored  to  ascertain  some  particulars  re- 
garding the  failure  of  the  community.  It  was  a  difficult 
endeavor,  for  as  Mr.  Warren  truly  said :  '  If  you  ask  a 
dozen  individuals,  you  will  get  a  dozen  different  causes.^ 
The  cause  Mr.  W assigned  was  '  error  in  the  princi- 
ples,^ and  for  many  years  he  has  endeavored  to  prove  the 
error  by  introducing  his  plan  of  '  equitable  commerce.' 

"  From  Mr.  C I  heard  the  story,  as  he  ended  it,  by 

178 


THE    TEN   LOST   TRIBES    OF   COMMUNISM 

saying,  that  with  all  the  troubles  and  vexations  of  that 
important  period  it  was  the  happiest  time  of  his  life.    Mr. 

A said  that  many  persons  came  there  and  lived  as  long 

as  they  could  get  supplies  for  nothing.  Many  things  were 
obtained  from  the  public  store  which  were  lost  or  wasted. 

Mr.  B said  that  there  were  some  noble  characters  there, 

with  names  that  have  since  stood  high  in  the  localities  to 
which  they  belonged,  who  set  examples  of  industry  and 
self-denial  worthy  of  a  great  cause.    I  could  mention  some 

of  them  that  I  have  known  in  my  travels.    Mr.  C said 

that  Mr.  Owen  forbade  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors  in 
the  town;  yet  it  was  obtained  from  the  distillery  in  a 
variety  of  cunning  ways.  Persons  went  at  night  and 
deposited  bottles,  mugs,  and  cans,  and  returned  at  certain 
periods  and  found  them  filled. 

"  I  was  one  day  at  the  tan-yard,  and  Squire  B and 

some  others  were  standing  talking  around  the  store.  Dur- 
ing the  conversation  Squire  B asked  if  he  had  ever  told 

them  how  he  had  served  '  old  Owen '  in  ^  community  time.' 
He  then  informed  us  that  he  came  from  Illinois  to  !N"ew 
Harmony,  and  that  a  man  in  Illinois  was  '^  owing  him,'  and 
asked  him  to  take  a  barrel  of  whisky  for  the  debt.  As  he 
could  not  well  get  the  money,  he  took  the  whisky.  When 
he  came  to  New  Harmony  he  did  not  know  where  to  put 
it,  but  finally  hid  it  in  his  cellar.  Not  long  after  this  Mr. 
Owen  found  that  the  people  still  got  whisky  from  some 
quarter,  he  could  not  tell  where,  though  he  did  his  best 
to  find  out.  At  last  he  suspected  Squire  B ,  and  ac- 
cordingly came  right  into  his  shop  and  accused  him  of  it; 

on  which  Squire  B had  to  '  own  up  '  that  it  was  he  who 

had  retailed  the  whisky,  saying  he  had  to  take  it  for  a 
debt,  and  what  was  he  to  do  to  get  rid  of  it.  Mr.  Owen 
turned  'round  and  in  his  simple  manner  said,  '  Ah !  I 
see  you  do  not  understand  the  principles.'  This  story  was 
finished  with  a  good  hearty  laugh  at  ^  old  Owen.'    I  could 

not  laugh,  but  felt  that  such  men  as  Squire  B did  not 

179 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

understand  the  principles,  and  no  wonder  there  are  failures, 
when  such  men  as  he  frustrate  benevolent  designs. 

"  Mr.  Owen  has  often  said  that  the  New  Harmony  ex- 
periment failed  because  the  members  did  not  understand 
the  principles.  It  may  be  so — facts  speak  for  themselves, 
and  every  individual  must  be  free,  as  he  is,  to  find  out, 
each  his  different  cause.  All  agree  that  a  battle  was  fought, 
that  there  was  some  gain,  and  some  loss,  but  though  many 
years  have  now  passed  away  it  still  remains  for  time 
to  prove  whether  the  battle  was  for  the  good  or  evil  of 
mankind. 

"  The  reader  will  no  doubt,  think  with  me,  that  the 
history  of  the  New  Harmony  community,  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  collect  it,  is  but  a  mass  of  confusion;  so 
many  theories  were  tried,  and  so  many  failures  took  place, 
that,  like  a  ball  of  entangled  thread,  it  is  difficult  to  un- 
ravel. If  he  glances  at  Mr.  Owen's  principles,  he  will  see 
what  Mr.  Owen  wished  to  practise,  and  if  he  understands 
the  materials  with  which  this  practise  was  to  be  made,  he 
will  see  how  impossible  it  was  to  produce  the  desired  re- 
sults. 

"  Mr.  Owen  said  he  wanted  ^  honesty  of  purpose,^  but  he 
got  dishonesty ;  he  wanted  temperance,  and,  instead,  he  was 
continually  troubled  with  intemperance;  indeed,  this  ap- 
pears to  have  been  one  of  the  greatest  troubles  with  which 
he  had  to  contend  in  those  times.  .  .  .  He  wanted  in- 
dustry, but  he  found  idleness ;  he  wanted  carefulness,  and 
found  waste;  he  wanted  cleanliness,  and  found  dirt;  he 
wanted  '  desire  for  knowledge,'  but  he  found  apathy.  He 
wanted  the  principles  of  the  formation  of  character  un- 
derstood, but  he  found  them  misunderstood.  He  wanted 
these  good  qualities  combined  in  one  and  all  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  community,  but  he  could  not  find  them 
self-sacrificing  and  enduring  enough  to  prepare  and  edu- 
cate their  children  to  possess  these  qualities.  Thus  it  was 
proved  that  his  principles  were  either  entirely  erroneous 

180 


THE   TEN   LOST   TRIBES    OF   COMMUNISM 

in  practise  or  mucli  in  advance  of  the  age  in  which  he 
promulgated  them. 

"  He  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  if  one  and  all  the 
thousand  persons  assembled  there  possessed  all  the  quali- 
ties which  he  wished  them  to  possess,  there  would  be  no 
necessity  for  his  vain  exertions  to  form  a  communit}^, 
because  there  would  of  necessity  be  '  brotherly  love/  char- 
ity, industry,  and  plenty,  and  all  their  actions  would  be 
governed  by  nature  and  reason.  We  want  no  more  than 
this,  and  if  this  is  the  material  to  form  communities  of, 
and  we  can  not  find  it,  we  can  not  form  communities. 
And  if  we  can  not  find  parents  who  are  ready  and  willing 
to  educate  their  children  to  give  them  qualities  for  a 
'  community  lif e,^  then  when  shall  we  have  '  communities 
of  united  effort '  ? 

"  There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  absence  of 
Eobert  Owen  was  one  of  the  great  causes  of  the  failure  of 
the  community,  for  he  was  naturally  looked  up  to  as  the 
head,  and  his  influence  might  have  kept  people  together, 
at  any  rate  to  effect  something  similar  to  what  had  been 
effected  at  New  Lanark.  But  with  a  people  free  as  these 
were  from  a  set  religious  creed,  and  consisting  as  they  did 
of  all  nations  and  opinions,  it  is  doubtful  if,  even  Mr. 
Owen  had  continued  there  all  the  time,  he  could  have 
kept  them  together.  No  comparison  can  be  made  between 
that  population  and  the  Shakers  or  Eappites,  who  are  each 
of  one  religious  faith.     .     .     . 

"  Wm.  Sampson,  of  Cincinnati,  was  at  New  Harmony 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  community.  He 
went  there  on  the  boat  which  took  the  last  of  the  Eappites 
away.  He  says  the  cause  of  failure  was  a  rogue  named 
Taylor,  who  insinuated  himself  into  Mr.  Owen's  favor,  and 
afterward  swindled  and  deceived  him  in  a  variety  of  ways ; 
among  other  things  establishing  a  distillery  contrary  to 
Mr.  Owen's  wishes  or  principles,  and  injurious  to  the  com- 
munity.    Owen  thought  it  would  be  ten  or  twelve  years 

181 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

before  the  community  would  fill  up,  but  no  sooner  had  the 
Eappites  left  than  the  place  was  taken  possession  of  by 
strangers  from  all  parts,  when  Owen  was  absent  in  Europe 
and  the  place  was  under  the  management  of  a  committee. 
When  Owen  returned  and  found  the  condition  of  things, 
he  deemed  it  necessary  to  make  an  alteration,  and  notices 
were  published  in  all  parts  telling  people  not  to  come 
there,  as  there  was  no  accommodation  for  them,  yet  still 
they  came,  until  Owen  was  compelled  to  have  all  the  log 
cabins  razed. 

*•  "  Taylor  and  Fauntleroy  were  Owen's  associates.  When 
Owen  found  out  Ta3dor's  rascality  he  resolved  to  abandon 
the  partnership  with  him,  which  Taylor  would  only  agree 
to  do  upon  Owen's  giving  him  a  large  tract  of  land  upon 
which  he  proposed  to  form  a  community  of  his  own. 
.  Instead  of  forming  a  community,  he  built  a  dis- 
tillery, and  set  up  a  tan-yard  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Owen's. 

"  In  the  Free  Enquirer,  of  June  10,  1829,  there  is  an 
article  by  Eobert  Dale  Owen  on  New  Lanark  and  New 
Harmony,  in  which,  after  comparing  the  two  places  and 
showing  the  difference  between  them,  he  makes  the  follow- 
ing remarks  relative  to  the  experiment  at  New  Harmony : 
^  There  was  not  disinterested  industry ;  there  was  not 
mutual  confidence;  there  was  not  practical  experience; 
there  was  not  unison  of  action  because  there  was  not 
unanimity  of  counsel.  These  were  the  points  of  difference 
and  dissension — the  rocks  on  which  the  social  hulk  struck 
and  was  wrecked.' 

"In  The  New  Moral  World  of  October  13,  1839, 
there  is  an  article  on  New  Harmony  in  which  it  is  asserted 
that  Mr.  Owen  was  induced  to  purchase  that  place  on  the 
understanding  that  the  population  then  resident  there, 
the  Eappites,  would  remain  until  he  had  gradually  intro- 
duced other  persons  to  acquire  from  them  the  systematic 
and  orderly  habits,  as  well  as  practical  knowledge  which 
they  had  gained  by  many  years  of  practise.    But  through 

182 


TEE    TEN   LOST   TRIBES    OF   COMMUNISM 

the  removal  of  Eapp  and  his  followers  Mr.  Owen  was  left 
with  all  the  property  on  his  hands,  and  he  was  compelled 
of  necessity  to  get  persons  to  come  there  to  prevent  things 
from  going  to  ruin.  It  shows  the  unsuitableness  of  the 
persons  who  went  there,  and  how  they  failed  in  their  at- 
tempts, and  proves  the  sincerity  of  Mr.  Owen  in  the  terms 
upon  which  he  granted  them  land,  viz. — the  perpetual  lease 
of  the  lands  so  long  as  the  principles  of  the  new  system 
were  carried  into  practise.  They  failed  to  do  this,  and  the 
estate  reverted  to  Mr.  Owen." 

Josiah  Warren  in  his  Practical  Details  of  Equitable 
Commerce,  says :  "  Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  during  the 
great  experiments  in  New  Harmony  everything  went  on 
delightfully  except  pecuniary  affairs.  We  should  no  doubt 
have  succeeded,  but  for  property  considerations.  But  then 
the  experiment  would  never  have  been  commenced  except 
for  property  considerations.  It  was  to  annihilate  social 
antagonisms  by  a  system  of  common  property  that  we 
undertook  the  experiment  at  all." 

John  Pratt,  a  Positivist,  as  quoted  by  Noyes,  said: 
"Like  most  men  of  the  last  generation  Eobert  Owen 
looked  upon  society  as  a  manufactured  product,  not  an 
organism  endowed  with  imperishable  vitality  and  growth. 
The  internal  afi&nities  of  Owen's  Commune  were 
too  weak  to  resist  the  attractions  of  the  outer  world." 

Horace  Greeley  and  Charles  A.  Dana  attributed  the 
failure  principally  to  the  lack  of  a  religious  basis  upon 
which  all  successful  communities  had  been  founded — 
Owen  having  been  the  first  to  attempt  the  establishment  of 
a  non-religious  community.  Greeley  said  that  a  great  ob- 
stacle encountered  in  such  experiments  was  "  the  class 
of  people  attracted — the  conceited,  the  crotchety,  and  the 
selfish  "  ;  while  Dana  concluded :  "  Destrov  selfhood,  and 
you  destroy  all  motive  to  exertion." 

Sargent,  one  of  Owen's  biographers,  thinks  there 
should  have  been  some  religious  bond  among  the  members 

183 


TEE  NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

to  insure  success.  Paul  Brown,  in  his  Twelve  Months  at 
New  Harmony,  questioned  the  sincerity  of  Robert  Owen 
himself,  while  E.  H.  Hamilton,  as  quoted  by  Noyes,  says 
that  Owen  "  required  other  people  to  be  what  he  was  not 
himself ;  he  himself  was  unreceptive  as  a  thinker."  Noyes 
thinks  that  drink  had  much  to  do  with  the  failure,  in  spite 
of  prohibitory  enactments.  Noyes  quotes  some  of  his  as- 
sociates as  saying : 

L.  R.  Leonard :  "  He  found  democrats  harder  to 
manage  than  the  servile  workmen  of  Scotland." 

G.  W.  Hamilton :  "  The  Owenites  were  too  independ- 
ent." 

F.  W.  Smith :    "  He  did  not  have  enough  deputies." 

C.  W.  Burt :  "  Communism  must  be  ruled  either  by 
law  or  grace.    He  abolished  law  and  did  not  employ  grace." 

George  Jacob  Holyoke,  in  his  History  of  Coopera- 
tion, says  that  "  the  cranks  killed  the  colony,"  which  was 
composed,  "  for  the  most  part,  of  the  selfish,  the  head- 
strong, the  pugnacious,  the  unappreciated,  the  played-out, 
the  idle,  and  the  good-for-nothing  generally,  who,  discov- 
ering themselves  out  of  place,  and  at  a  discount  in  the 
world  as  it  is,  rashly  conclude  that  they  are  exactly  fitted 
for  the  world  as  it  ought  to  be.  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  the 
men  of  good  sense  reigned  at  first,  and  prevailed  inter- 
mittently throughout.  .  .  .  The  absence  of  Mr.  Owen 
during  the  years  when  personal  inspiration  and  training 
were  most  important  were  causes  quite  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  fluctuations  and  the  final  effacement  of  New  Har- 
mony." 

Noyes  gives  us  the  explanation  offered  by  the  mem- 
bers of  four  of  the  branch  communities,  as  follows: 

Yellow  Springs :  "  Self-love  was  a  spirit  that  could 
not  be  exorcised." 

Nashoba :  "  The  projectors  acknowledge  that  such  a 
system  can  not  succeed  unless  the  members  composing  it 
are  superior  beings." 

184 


TEE   TEN  LOST   TRIBES   OF   COMMUNISM 

Haverstraw  community :  "  There  was  a  lack  of  men 
and  women  of  skilful  industry,  sober  and  honest,  with  a 
knowledge  of  themselves  and  a  disposition  to  command  and 
to  be  commanded." 

Coxsackie  community :  "  Too  many  persons  engaged  in 
law-making  and  talking,  who  did  not  work  at  any  useful 
employment." 

Eobert  Dale  Owen,  writing  many  years  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  New  Harmony  venture,  says,  in  speaking 
of  the  Gazette  editorial  before  quoted  as  an  obituary  of 
the  New  Harmony  and  Macluria  communities :  "  In  enu- 
merating the  causes  leading  to  the  failure  of  the  experi- 
ment, the  Gazette  .  .  .  omits  the  one  most  potent 
factor.  All  cooperative  schemes  which  provide  equal  remu- 
neration to  the  skilled  and  industrious  and  the  ignorant 
and  idle,  must  work  their  own  downfall,  for  by  this  unjust 
plan  of  remuneration  they  must  of  necessity  eliminate  the 
valuable  members — who  find  their  services  reaped  by 
the  indigent — and  retain  only  the  improvident,  unskilled, 
and  vicious  members.  .  .  .  Eobert  Owen  distinguished 
the  great  principle,  but,  like  so  many  other  devisers,  missed 
the  working  details  of  his  scheme.  If  these,  when  stated, 
seem  to  be  so  near  the  surface  that  common  sagacity  ought 
to  have  detected  them,  let  us  bear  in  mind  how  wise  men 
stumbled  over  the  simple  puzzle  of  Columbus;  failing  to 
balance  the  egg  on  one  end  till  a  touch  from  the  great 
navigator's  hand  solved  the  petty  mystery." 


185 


CHAPTER   XIX 

WOMAN   AT   NEW   HAKMONY 

"  Woman :  May  the  experiment  being  tried  in  New  Harmony  of 
the  same  intellectual  cultivation  of  the  sexes,  prove  that  woman's 
capabilities  are  equal  to  those  of  men." — Toast  responded  to  at  the 
Semi-  Centennial  celebration  at  Marietta^  Ohio^  July  4^  1826. 

The  last  century  was  a  great  iconoclast.  Errors  over- 
thrown, fallacies  exploded,  superstitions  vanquished,  and 
broken  idols  lie  strewn  along  its  pathway.  In  its  humanity 
the  century  shamed  its  predecessors.  There  was  no  social 
condition  which  it  did  not  ameliorate  and  no  social  class 
which  it  did  not  lift  and  better.  The  nineteenth  century 
did  more  for  womankind  than  for  any  other  social  group. 
To  woman  it  threw  wide  open  the  doors  of  its  schools  and 
universities.  For  her  it  wrote  welcome  above  the  threshold 
of  every  vocation  for  which  she  has  shown  herself  to  be 
adapted  and  in  which  she  has  made  herself  proficient.  It 
broke  down  the  idolatry  by  which  men  had  perpetuated  the 
errors  of  the  Common  Law  and  relieved  woman  of  its 
cruelties  by  legislative  enactment.  It  protected  her  from 
the  drunkenness  and  brutality  of  unworthy  husbands  and 
bestowed  upon  her  every  right,  save  that  of  suffrage,  for- 
merly enjoyed  by  the  sterner  sex  alone.  The  twentieth 
century  found  woman  a  legal  slave  and  sent  her  into  the 
twentieth  century  man's  legal  as  well  as  his  social  equal. 

Much  of  the  battle  for  equal  rights  of  women  centered 
around  the  demand  for  equal  political  rights.  The  group 
of  agitators  in  the  forefront  of  the  woman-suffrage  move- 

186 


WOMAN   AT   NEW   HARMONY 

ment  attacked  every  abuse  and  every  injustice  from  which 
their  sisterhood  suffered.  Public  sentiment  yielded  to 
every  demand  save  the  one  for  which  they  labored  most 
zealously,  but  bequeathed  its  solution  to  posterity.  In  the 
history  of  woman  suffrage  published  by  those  three  able 
leaders  in  the  movement,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Susan 
B.  Anthony,  and  Matilda  Joslyn  Gage^,  the  following  are 
given  as  the  chief  of  the  immediate  causes  that  led  to  the 
demand  for  the  equal  political  rights  of  women  in  this 
country : 

( 1 )  "  The  able  lectures  of  Frances  Wright  on  political, 
religious,  and  social  questions.  Ernestine  L.  Eose,  follow- 
ing in  her  wake,  equally  liberal  in  her  religious  opinions 
and  equally  well  informed  on  the  science  of  government, 
helped  to  deepen  and  perpetuate  the  impression  Frances 
Wright  had  made  on  the  minds  of  unprejudiced  hearers." 
Frances  Wright  was  a  member  of  The  New  Moral  World, 
a  devotee  of  its  communistic  theories  and  the  coadjutor 
of  the  Owens.  She  saw  practised  there  a  many-phased 
emancipation  of  woman  ere  she  contended  for  it  before 
the  lyceum  of  the  nation,  Ernestine  Eose,  who  came  from 
England  to  settle  in  the  State  of  New  York  after  the  fail- 
ure of  the  great  experiment  on  the  Wabash,  was  a  follower 
of  Eobert  Owen. 

(2)  "The  discussion  in  several  of  the  State  legisla- 
tures on  the  property  rights  of  married  women.  These 
were  heralded  by  the  press  with  comments  grave  and  gay, 
became  the  topic  of  general  interest  around  many  fashion- 
able dinner- tables  and  at  many  humble  firesides.  In  this 
way  all  phases  of  the  question  were  touched  upon,  involving 
the  relations  of  the  sexes,  and  gradually  widening  to  all 
human  interests — political,  religious,  civil,  and  social.  The 
press  and  pulpit  became  suddenly  vigilant  in  making  out 
woman's  sphere  while  woman  herself  seemed  equally  vigi- 
lant in  her  efforts  to  step  outside  the  prescribed  limits." 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  stood  foremost  among  legislators  in 

187 


THE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

championing  the  rights  of  woman.  At  N'ew  Harmony 
had  been  advocated  and  practised  most  if  not  all  the  in- 
novations in  the  legal  status  of  women  which  he  in  later 
vears  wrote  into  the  laws  of  his  own  State.  The  advanced 
notions  concerning  the  equality  of  the  sexes  which  The  Xew 
Moral  World  proclaimed  attracted  the  attention  of  the  en- 
tire country  at  the  time,  led  to  much  vigorous  discussion 
of  woman's  true  sphere  and  rights,  and  doubtless  paved  the 
way  for  the  reforms  of  later  years. 

(3)  "Above  all  other  causes  of  the  woman-suffrage 
movement  was  the  antislavery  struggle  in  this  country. 
The  early  abolitionists  numbered  in  their  ranks  some  of 
the  most  splendid  specimens  of  womanhood  in  physical  ap- 
pearance, in  culture,  refinement,  and  knowledge  of  polite 
life."  Their  eloquence  thrilled  the  country.  The  question 
of  their  right  to  speak,  vote,  and  serve  on  committees  in 
antislavery  organizations  precipitated  to  the  fullest  a 
fierce  discussion  of  woman's  political  rights.  In  abolition- 
ist conventions  women  learned  to  debate  and  transact  busi- 
ness affairs.  Broad  discussions  of  justice,  liberty,  and 
equality  taught  them  the  lesson  of  freedom  for  themselves. 
Equality  before  the  law  for  the  negro  suggested  the  justice 
of  a  similar  equality  for  them.  Suffrage  bestowed  upon 
the  liberated  bondsman  afforded  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  political  rights  for  the  gentler  sex. 

The  New  Moral  World  opposed  slavery  with  bitterness. 
Frances  Wright  denounced  it  from  the  rostrum  and  sought 
to  abolish  it  by  colonization.  Eobert  Dale  Owen  fought  it 
vigorously  for  almost  forty  years,  became  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  of  the  antislavery  orators  and  played  no  small 
part  in  the  overthrow  of  the  institution. 

The  New  Moral  World  revolutionized  the  condition  of 
woman  within  its  boundaries  and  hoped  through  the  ex- 
ample which  it  set  to  effect  a  similar  revolution  everywhere. 
The  philosophy  of  Eobert  Owen  contemplated  equal  privi- 
leges for  the  sexes.    The  educational  institutions  at  New 

188 


FRANCES  WRIGHT. 


WOMAN  AT  NEW   HARMONY 

Harmony  were  coeducational  from  the  beginning — a  pio- 
neer venture  which  attracted  wide  attention  and  comment. 
In  the  original  communit}^,  women  were  given  an  equal 
voice  with  men  in  legislation.  In  several  of  the  later 
communities  women  were  given  a  vote  'in  legislative  as- 
semblages and  in  others  the  right  to  participate  in  debate. 
In  all  cases  the  widows  of  deceased  members  of  The  New 
Moral  World  succeeded  to  the  rights  and  privileges  which 
their  husbands  had  enjoyed.  The  Common  Law  wrested 
all  property  from  the  hands  of  a  married  woman  and 
bestowed  its  management  and  enjoyment  upon  her  hus- 
band. By  abolishing  the  institution  of  private  property, 
Owen^s  system  annulled  so  far  as  the  Commune  was  con- 
cerned the  greatest  injustice  which  that  law  had  for  cen- 
turies inflicted  upon  womankind. 

The  broad  philanthropy  of  Owen  and  Maclure  knew  no 
distinctions  of  color  or  sex.  They  sought  in  the  enterprise 
on  the  Wabash  "  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  every 
man,  woman,  and  child,  without  regard  to  their  sect,  class, 
party,  or  color."  The  principle  of  human  equality  was  a 
cardinal  one  with  them.  But  they  were  more  consistent 
in  its  application  than  the  government  which  wrote  the 
Declaration  and  tolerated  slavery.  There  was  no  escaping 
the  logic  of  their  reasoning.  If  woman  was  man's  equal, 
then  there  was  not  a  social,  a  property  or  a  political  right 
which  he  enjoyed,  to  which  she  was  not  justly  and  equally 
entitled. 

Perhaps  the  chief  cause  for  the  advanced  position  of 
the  Commune  upon  woman's  rights  lay  in  the  chivalric 
regard  for  women  that  characterized  the  Owens,  both 
father  and  son.  In  his  day,  the  charge  was  widely  made 
and  believed  that  the  elder  Owen  stood  sponsor  for  free 
love.  It  still  lingers  as  a  popular  impression  which  never 
had  foundation  in  fact.  The  private  character  of  Eobert 
Owen  was  exceptionally  pure  and  his  family  life  was  happy. 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  relates  that  his  mother  declared  to  him 

189 


TEE   NEW   liARMONY   MOVEMENT 

upon  a  number  of  occasions  that  his  father  was  all  that 
her  heart  could  desire  him  to  be. 

Like  father,  like  son,  was  never  more  truthfully  illus- 
trated than  by  the  elder  and  younger  Owen.  Seldom  have 
parent  and  offspring  held  as  many  common  interests  or 
stood  for  as  many  common  principles.  There  are  few  finer 
tributes  to  woman  in  the  language  than  the  one  offered  by 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  during  the  progress  of  the  debates  con- 
cerning the  property  rights  of  married  women  in  the  last 
Indiana  Constitutional  Convention. 

"  I  owe  to  woman,  as  wife,  as  friend,  all  the  best,  the 
happiest, — yes,  and  the  purest  hours  of  my  life.  Sir,  no 
man  of  sense  or  modesty  unnecessarily  obtrudes  upon  the 
public  personalities  that  regard  himself  and  his  private 
thoughts  and  actions.  But  yet  grossly  assailed  as  my  con- 
duct and  principles  have  been  upon  this  floor,  it  may  not  be 
unfitting  that  I  should  say  here,  that  to  a  good  father,  to 
an  excellent  mother,  I  owe  it  that  my  youth  was  preserved 
from  habits  of  excess,  from  associations  of  profligacy. 
.  I  have  no  associations  connected  with  the  name 
of  woman  save  those  of  esteem  and  respectful  affection. 
I  owe  to  her  sex  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  can  never  be 
paid  though  my  days  were  extended  to  the  term  of  life 
assigned  to  the  ancient  patriarchs  and  though  all  those 
days  were  spent  in  her  service  and  were  devoted  to  the 
vindication  of  her  rights." 

Eobert  Owen^s  desire  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of 
woman  led  him  into  a  radical  and  much  discussed  attitude 
on  the  institution  of  marriage.  But  it  is  certain  that  he 
looked  upon  his  attack  on  the  existing  form  of  marriage  as 
a  step  in  the  direction  of  a  higher  morality  and  a  wider 
justice.  One  of  the  severest  indictments  that  he  urges 
against  the  existing  state  of  society  was  that  in  it  a 
natural  marriage  was  almost  impossible.  He  hastened  to 
explain  that  he  meant  by  natural  marriage  "  a  marriage 
where  a  union  is  formed  under  those  institutions  which 

190 


WOMAN   AT   NEW   HARMONY 

provide  for  all  parties  an  equal  education,  under  which 
they  are  enabled  to  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  them- 
selves and  of  human  nature ;  wherein  no  other  motive  shall 
influence  the  affections  but  intimate  sympathy  and  unaf- 
fected congeniality,  founded  on  a  real  knowledge  of  each 
other  by  both  parties ;  where  the  imagination  has  been  care- 
fully excluded  and  where  the  judgment  has  been  guide  and 
director/' 

The  charge  that  Eobert  Owen  stood  sponsor  for  free 
love  is  preposterous.  To  him,  both  in  practise  and  precept, 
the  marriage  of  one  man  and  one  woman  was  one  of  the 
most  sacred  institutions  that  has  blessed  the  race.  No 
communit}^  practised  a  higher  morality  than  did  New 
Harmony  under  his  regime  and  nowhere  was  the  mar- 
riage relation  held  in  greater  esteem  or  more  happily 
and  faithfully  observed  than  at  New  Harmony  during 
community  days.  Owen  did  object  to  the  form  of  mar- 
riage then  observed,  because,  he  declared,  "  It  obligates  the 
contracting  parties  to  do  what  they  may  not  be  able  to 
perform  and  because  it  marks  a  disposition  to  enslave  one- 
half  of  our  fellow  creatures."  While  he  devised  a  new 
ceremony  by  which  the  people  of  the  community  regarded 
themselves  as  equally  bound,  yet  in  compliance  with  cus- 
tom and  the  laws  of  the  State  the  new  ceremony  was  ob- 
served not  as  a  substitute  for  but  an  addition  to  the  old. 

The  New  Harmony  Gazette  gives  an  interesting  account 
of  a  double  marriage  ceremony  performed  under  the 
auspices  of  the  community  on  the  first  Sunday  in  April, 
1826.  At  a  regular  meeting  of  the  society  in  New  Har- 
mony Hall,  Eev.  John  Burkitt  joined  in  marriage  "  Philip 
M.  Price,  late  of  Philadelphia,  to  Matilda  Greenbree,  late 
of  Washington  City,  and  Eobert  Eobson,  late  of  Washing- 
ton City,  to  Eliza  E.  Parvin,  late  of  Princeton,  Indiana.'' 

"  In  compliance  with  a  resolution  passed  at  a  previous 
meeting  of  the  community,"  says  the  Gazette,  "  the  four 
parties,  previous  to  the  performance  of  the  marriage  cere- 

191 


THE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

mony,  entered  a  protest  against  the  usual  form  of  mar- 
riage in  the  following  manner :  Each  couple  standing  up 
in  the  meeting,  and  taking  each  other  by  the  hand,  severally 
repeated:  'I,  A.  B.,  do  agree  to  take  this  man  (woman)  to 
be  my  husband  (wife),  and  I  declare  that  I  submit  to  any 
other  ceremony  upon  this  occasion  only  in  conformity  with 
the  laws  of  the  State/  They  then  went  through  with  the 
marriage  ceremony  in  usual  form/' 

The  elder  Owen's  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  the 
women  of  the  community  was  characteristic.  When  at  one 
of  the  Sunday  meetings  during  the  summer  of  1826  it  was 
agreed  that  the  society  should  meet  on  three  evenings  each 
week  for  instruction,  the  point  was  raised  that  "  the  fe- 
males would  hardly  have  time  to  get  done  with  supper  to 
meet  there  so  early  and  so  often."  "  Mr.  Owen  said,"  an 
account  of  the  meeting  states,  "that  he  had  been  en- 
deavoring to  ascertain  the  cause  why  so  much  difficulty  is 
experienced  by  the  females  of  this  community  in  the  per- 
formance of  their  domestic  duties."  Female  labor,  he  de- 
clared, ought  to  be  lighter  under  the  community  than 
under  the  individual  system.  Perhaps  the  women  spent 
too  much  time  talking,  he  suggested.  "  By  coming  to  these 
meetings  for  instruction  they  might  perhaps  get  rid  of 
the  desire  and  the  occasion  for  so  much  useless  talk." 

The  further  suggestion  was  made  at  this  meeting  that 
"  there  existed  great  jealousy  among  the  females  of  this 
place;  that  some  were  afraid  of  doing  more  than  their 
share  of  the  work,  and  some  were  afraid  of  doing  anything 
at  all."  Mr.  Owen  responded  that  "  education  begun  at 
the  age  of  three  years  would  eradicate  these  evil  passions 
from  the  coming  generation." 

In  the  New  Harmony  library  is  still  to  be  seen  the  desk 
over  which  Frances  Wright  delivered  lectures  in  which 
woman  suffrage  was  first  advocated,  and  some  of  the 
first  arguments  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  and 
the  granting  of  suffrage  to  the  negroes  were  advanced. 

192 


WOMAN   AT  NEW   HARMONY 

Frances  Wright  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  figures  in 
the  brilliant  coterie  of  eccentric  reformers  which  gathered 
about  Kobert  Owen  at  the  announcement  of  his  New  Har- 
mony plans.  With  her  sister  Camilla  she  was  left  an 
orphan  at  an  early  age,  and  these  girls  of  large  fortune  and 
gentle  birth  were  confided  to  the  care  of  Jeremy  Bentham, 
who  at  one  time  was  associated  in  business  with  Kobert 
Owen. 

"  He  had  them  educated  according  to  his  own  peculiar 
crotchets/^  says  one  writer,  "  and  very  eccentric  women  he 
made  of  them ;  they  fitted  into  no  social  map,  no  domestic 
form.  Frances  had  a  strong  masculine  mind  and  charac- 
ter, and  took  to  the  manly  rearing  Bentham  gave  her." 
*'  She  was  thoroughly  versed  in  the  literature  of  the  day," 
says  Robert  Dale  Owen,  "  was  well  informed  on  general 
topics,  and  spoke  French  and  Italian  fluently.  She  had 
traveled  and  resided  for  years  in  Europe,  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  General  Lafayette,  had  made  the  acquaintance  of 
many  leading  reformers,  Hungarian,  Polish,  and  others, 
and  was  a  thorough  republican ;  indeed,  an  advocate  of  uni- 
versal suffrage  without  regard  to  color  or  sex. 
Refined  in  her  manner  and  language,  she  was  a  radical  alike 
in  politics,  morals,  and  religion.  She  had  a  strong,  logical 
mind,  a  courageous  independence  of  thought,  and  a  zealous 
wish  to  benefit  her  fellow  creatures ;  but  the  mind  had  not 
been  submitted  to  early  discipline,  the  courage  was  not 
tempered  with  prudence,  the  philanthropy  had  too  little 
of  common  sense  to  give  it  practical  form  and  eflBciency. 
Her  enthusiasm,  eager  but  fitful,  lacked  the  guiding  check 
of  sound  judgment.  Her  abilities  as  an  author  and  lec- 
turer were  of  a  high  order,  but  an  inordinate  estimate  of 
her  own  mental  powers,  and  obstinate  adherence  to  opin- 
ions once  adopted,  detracted  seriously  from  the  influence 
which  her  talents  and  eloquence  might  have  exerted.  A 
redeeming  point  was,  that  to  carry  out  her  convictions  she 
was  ready  to  make  great  sacrifices,  personal  and  pecuniary. 
14  193 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT  \ 

She  and  a  young  sister,  a  lady  alike  amiable  and  estimable,  \ 
had  always  lived  and  journeyed  together,  were  independent  ^ 
in  their  circumstances,  and  were  devotedly  attached  toi 
each  other.  i 

"  She  had  various  personal  advantages — a  tall,  com- 
manding  figure,  somewhat  slender  and  graceful,  though' 
the  shoulders  were  a  little  bit  too  high ;  a  face  the  outline  i 
of  which  in  profile,  though  delicately  chiseled,  was  mas- 
culine rather  than  feminine,  like  that  of  an  Antinous,  or 
perhaps  more  nearly  typifying  a  Mercury;  the  forehead 
broad,  but  not  high;  the  short  chestnut  hair  curling  natu-i 
rally  all  over  a  classic  head;  the  large  blue  eyes  not  soft,! 
but  clear  and  earnest.    When  I  first  met  her,  at  Harmony,  i 
in  the  summer  of  1826,  some  of  the  peculiarities  of  char-> 
acter  above  set  forth  had  not  developed  themselves.     She; 
was  then  known  in  England  and  here  only  as  the  author  of; 
a  small  book  entitled,  A  Few  Days  in  Athens,  published] 
and  favorably  received  in  London,  and  of  a  volume  of  I 
travels  in  the  United  States,  in  which  she  spoke  in  lauda-i 
tory  tone  of  our  institutions  and  of  our  people.^' 

Frances  Wright  first  appeared  at  New  Harmony  after  i 
the  purchase  of  the  estate  by  Mr.  Owen,  but  before  the: 
removal  of  the  Eappites,  whom  she  accompanied  to  Penn-j 
sylvania,  and  there  studied  their  methods  of  settlement.! 
She  spent  some  time  at  New  Harmony  after  the  founding; 
of  the  Preliminary  Society,  and  in  the  summer  of  1825! 
issued  a  prospectus  announcing  plans  for  founding  a  coni-  \ 
munity  in  which  not  only  the  industrial  problem  but  the; 
slave  question  was  to  be  solved.  j 

She  purchased  two  thousand  acres  of  woodland  situ-j 
ated  on  both  sides  of  Wolf  River  thirteen  miles  above  Mem- ; 
phis.  With  fifteen  negroes  purchased  of  neighboring  slave- , 
holders,  she  began  her  experiment  in  the  autumn  of  1825,  ] 
giving  the  name  "  Nashoba  "  to  her  colony.  Her  idea  was , 
to  elevate  the  negro  by  education,  and  to  found  a  com-j 
munity  system  which,  by  spreading,  would  eventually  re-i 

194  i 


] 


WOMAN   AT   NEW   HARMONY 

suit  in  the  abolition  of  slavery ;  but  there  was  to  be  in  each 
community  a  coterie  of  "  good  and  great  men  and  women 
of  all  countries,"  as  Noyes  says,  "  who  might  there  sym- 
pathize with  each  other  in  their  love  and  labor  for  hu- 
manity. She  invited  congenial  minds  from  every  quarter 
of  the  globe  to  unite  with  her  in  the  search  for  truth  and 
the  pursuit  of  rational  happiness."  Half  of  the  earnings 
of  each  negro  was  to  be  set  apart  to  purchase  his  emancipa- 
tion, if  necessary.  Each  community  was  to  be  managed 
by  the  whites. 

"  The  theory  was  benevolent,"  says  Noyes,  "  but  prac- 
tically the  institution  must  have  been  a  two-story  com- 
monwealth, something  like  the  old  Grecian  states  which 
founded  liberty  on  Helotism.  It  might  be  defined  as  a 
Brook  Farm  plus  a  negro  basis,  thus  obviating  the  diffi- 
culty encountered  in  that  experiment,  which  Hawthorne 
designates,  namely,  that  the  amateurs  who  took  part  in 
that  picnic,  *  did  not  like  to  serve  as  chambermaids  to 
the  cows.' " 

Early  in  the  history  of  this  experiment,  failing  health 
compelled  Frances  Wright  to  make  a  trip  to  Europe.  Dur- 
ing her  absence  matters  became  sadly  tangled,  and  on  her 
return  in  December  she  made  over  the  estate  to  a  board 
of  trustees  composed  of  General  Lafayette,  William  Ma- 
clure,  Eobert  Owen,  Cadwallader  Golden,  Richeson  Whit- 
by, Eobert  Jennings,  Eobert  Dale  Owen,  George  Flower, 
Camilla  Wright,  and  James  Eichardson,  "  to  be  held  by 
them,  their  associates,  and  their  successors  in  perpetual 
trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  negro  race."  By  two  other 
deeds  she  gave  to  these  trustees  the  negro  slaves  on  the 
estate,  and  all  her  personal  property. 

In  an  appeal  to  the  public  issued  at  this  time  she  de- 
clared that  no  difference  in  education  or  other  advantages 
would  be  made  between  white  and  colored  children.  Con- 
ditions did  not  greatly  improve  under  the  management  of 
the  trustees,  and  in  March,  1828,  they  published  a  com- 

195 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

1 

munication  in  the  Nashoba  Gazette  in  whieh  the  failure  of  i 
the  cooperative  feature  of  the  scheme  was  practically  ad-  i 
mitted,  and  it  was  proposed  that  each  white  member  of  | 
the  community  pay  into  the  treasury  one  hundred  dollars  ; 
annually  for  board ;  "  each  one  must  also  build  himself  a  i 
small  brick  house  with  a  piazza,  according  to  a  regular  plan,  : 
and  upon  a  spot  of  ground  selected  for  the  purpose  near  \ 
the  center  of  the  lands."  Frances  Wright,  Kicheson  Whit-  ! 
by,  Camilla  Wright  Whitby,  and  Eobert  Dale  Owen  signed  j 
this  communication  as  resident  trustees.  i 

Soon  after  this  the  community  was  abandoned,  and  in  | 
the  following  June  Frances  Wright  moved  to  New  Har-  ' 
mony,  where,  in  conjunction  with  William  Owen,  she  i 
edited  the  New  Harmony  Gazette,  which  became  the  New  ; 
Harmony  and  Nashoba  Gazette,  or  Free  Enquirer. 

During  community  days  Frances  Wright  gathered  | 
about  her  at  New  Harmony  a  coterie  of  kindred  spirits  and  i 
founded  an  organization  of  women  for  study  and  discus-  : 
sion.  This  organization  succeeded  what  was  known  as  the  , 
Woman^s  Social  Society,  established  during  the  continuance  ' 
of  the  Preliminary  Society  in  1826.  In  turn  the  society  ' 
founded  by  Frances  Wright,  after  it  had  lapsed  for  over  ; 
twenty-five  years,  was  succeeded  on  September  30,  1859,  I 
by  the  Minerva  Society,  a  woman's  literary  club,  founded  ! 
by  Mrs.  Constance  Fauntleroy  Euncie,  a  granddaughter  I 
of  Robert  Owen.  This  club  was  the  first  woman's  club  in  j 
the  United  States,  in  the  present  sense  of  that  term.  The  j 
Minerva  Society  antedated  the  Boston  Women's  Club  and  | 
Sorosis  of  New  York  by  nine  years.  "It  was,"  Mrs. 
Runcie  writes,  "  a  complete,  fully  officered  club.  The  club 
procedure  adopted  by  this  organization  has  since  been  fol- 
lowed by  all  clubs  as  to  the  main  idea." 

Shortly  after  the  downfall  of  Owen's  social  order,  the 
New  Harmony  Gazette,  with  the  title  of  Free  Enquirer, 
was  removed  to  New  York  and  for  several  years  ably  edited 
by  Frances  Wright  and  Robert  Dale  Owen.    These  gifted 

196 


WOMAN  AT  NEW   HARMONY 

iconoclasts  attacked  every  social  and  political  abuse,  but 
none  more  vigorously  than  the  unjust  provisions  of  the 
Conunon  Law  respecting  the  rights  of  married  women. 
From  the  metropolis,  Frances  Wright  soon  began  a  whirl- 
wind lecturing  tour  of  the  country.  One  of  her  favorite 
themes  was  the  equality  of  the  sexes.  Her  brilliancy  and 
radicalism  attracted  wide-spread  attention.  Her  eloquent 
plea  for  equal  rights  for  the  gentler  sex  and  her  fierce 
denunciation  of  the  existing  legal  status  of  woman  sowed 
the  seeds  of  a  later  agitation  that  wrested  from  the  reluc- 
tant hands  of  the  dominant  sex  every  legal  right  for  which 
she  had  contended  save  that  of  suffrage. 

Misunderstood  and  vilified  by  her  contemporaries, 
Frances  Wright  has  come  into  a  tardy  recognition  of  the 
valuable  pioneer  service  which  she  rendered  in  behalf  of  the 
legal  emancipation  of  womankind. 

John  Humphrey  Noyes,  in  his  History  of  American 
Socialisms,  says :  "  This  woman,  little  known  to  the  pres- 
ent generation,  was  really  the  spiritual  helpmate  and 
better  half  of  the  Owens,  in  the  socialistic  revival  of  1826. 
Our  impression  is,  not  only  that  she  was  the  leading  woman 
in  the  communistic  movement  of  that  period,  but  that  she 
had  a  very  important  agency  in  starting  two  other  move- 
ments that  had  far  greater  success  and  are  at  this  mo- 
ment in  popular  favor,  viz.:  antislavery  and  woman's 
rights.  If  justice  were  done,  we  are  confident  her  name 
would  figure  high  with  those  of  Lundy,  Garrison,  and  John 
Brown  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  of  Abby  Kelly,  Lucy 
Stone,  and  Anna  Dickinson  on  the  other.  She  was  indeed 
the  pioneer  of  strong-minded  women.'' 

In  the  tenth  National  Woman's  Eights  Convention, 
Ernestine  L.  Rose,  herself  a  pioneer  in  the  advocacy  of 
woman's  rights,  paid  this  just  tribute  to  the  founder  of 
the  agitation  :• 

"  Frances  Wright  was  the  first  woman  in  this  country 
who  spoke  on  the  equality  of  the  sexes.    She  had  indeed  a 

197 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

hard  task  before  her.  The  elements  were  entirely  unpre- ! 
pared.  She  had  to  break  up  the  time-hardened  soil  of 
conservatism,  and  her  reward  was  sure — the  same  reward  | 
that  is  always  bestowed  upon  those  who  are  in  the  van-  [ 
guard  of  any  great  movement.  She  was  subjected  to  pub-  | 
lie  odium,  slander,  and  persecution.  But  these  were  not  i 
the  only  things  that  she  received.  Oh,  she  had  her  reward !  i 
— ^that  reward  of  which  no  enemies  could  deprive  her,  j 
which  no  slanders  could  make  less  precious — the  eternal  i 
reward  of  knowing  that  she  had  done  her  duty ;  the  reward  , 
springing  from  the  consciousness  of  right,  of  endeavoring  , 
to  benefit  unborn  generations.  How  delightful  to  see  the  \ 
molding  of  the  minds  around  you,  the  infusing  of  your  ■ 
thoughts  and  aspirations  into  others,  until  one  by  one  they  J 
stand  by  your  side,  without  knowing  how  they  came  there !  j 
That  reward  she  had.  It  has  been  her  glory,  it  is  the  i 
glory  of  her  memory ;  and  the  time  will  come  when  j 
society  will  have  outgrown  its  old  prejudices,  and  stepped  I 
with  one  foot,  at  least,  upon  the  elevated  platform  on  which  ' 
she  took  her  position.  But  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  j 
elements  were  unprepared,  she  naturally  could  not  sue-  ; 
ceed  to  any  great  extent."  ! 

At  a  celebration  of  the  twentieth  anniversary  of  the  i 
National  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  held  in  Apollo  Hall ! 
in  New  York  City  on  the  19th  day  of  October,  1870, ; 
Paulina  W.  Davis,  who  had  called  the  first  National  Con-  ! 
vention  twenty  years  before,  was  unanimously  chosen  to 
preside.  On  taking  the  chair,  Mrs,  Davis  gave  a  resume  ' 
of  the  Woman's  Eights  Movement,  in  the  course  of  which  i 
she  gave  this  testimony  to  the  purity  of  life  and  the  un-  j 
selfishness  of  the  labors  of  Frances  Wright  in  behalf  of  a  i 
world-wide  sisterhood:  i 

"  To  this  heroic  woman,  who  left  ease,  elegance,  a  high  j 
social  circle  of  rich  culture,  and  with  true  self-abnegation  j 
gave  her  life,  in  the  country  of  her  adoption,  to  the  teach-  : 
ing  of  her  highest  idea  of  truth,  it  is  fitting  that  we  pay 

198  ■ 


WOMAN  AT  NEW   HARMONY. 

a  tribute  of  just,  though  late,  respect.  Her  writings  are 
of  the  purest  and  noblest  character,  and  whatever  there 
is  of  error  in  them  is  easily  thrown  aside.  The  spider 
sucks  poison  from  the  same  flower  from  which  the  bee 
gathers  honey;  let  us  therefore  ask  if  the  evil  be  not  in 
ourselves  before  we  condemn  others.  Pharisaism,  then  as 
now,  was  ready  to  stone  the  prophet  of  freedom.  She  bore 
the  calumny,  reproach,  and  persecution  to  which  she  was 
subjected  for  the  truth,  as  calmly  as  Socrates.  Looking 
down  from  the  serene  heights  of  her  philosophy  she  pitied 
and  endured  the  scoffs  and  jeers  of  the  multitude,  and 
fearlessly  continued  to  utter  her  rebukes  against  oppres- 
sion, ignorance,  and  bigotry.  Women  joined  in  the  hue 
and  cry  against  her,  little  thinking  that  men  were  building 
the  gallows  and  making  them  the  executioners.  Women 
have  crucified  in  all  ages  the  redeemers  of  their  own  sex, 
and  men  mock  them  with  the  fact.  It  is  time  now  that 
we  trample  beneath  our  feet  this  ignoble  public  sentiment 
which  men  have  made  for  us;  and  if  others  are  to  be 
crucified  before  we  can  be  redeemed,  let  men  do  the  cruel, 
cowardly  work ;  but  let  us  learn  to  hedge  womanhood  round 
with  generous,  protecting  love  and  care.  Then  men  will 
learn,  as  they  should,  that  this  system  of  traducing 
women  is  no  longer  to  be  used  as  a  means  for  their  sub- 
jugation. Let  us  learn  to  demand  that  all  men  who  come 
into  our  presence  be  as  pure  as  they  claim  that  women 
should  be.  Let  the  test  be  applied  which  Christ  gave,  that 
if  any  is  without  sin  in  word,  or  deed,  or  thought,  he  shall 
^  cast  the  first  stone.' '' 

Eobert  Owen's  advanced  views  regarding  the  equality 
of  the  sexes  did  not  receive  immediate  acceptance,  but  in 
after  years  they  deeply  influenced  American  legislation 
through  the  labors  of  his  distinguished  son,  Eobert  Dale 
Owen.  Both  the  elder  and  the  younger  Owen  were  pre- 
eminently reformers  and  humanitarians.  While  still  a 
young  man  Eobert  Dale  Owen  visited  Lafayette  at  his 

199 


TEE   NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

home  in  Lagrange,  France.  In  one  of  their  conversations, 
Lafayette  said :  "  My  young  friend,  you  will  probably 
some  day  be  one  of  the  lawmakers  in  your  adopted 
country.  If  you  ever  become  a  member  of  a  legislative 
body,  bear  this  in  mind :  That  utter  seclusion  from  one's 
fellow  creatures  for  years  is  a  refinement  of  cruelty  which 
no  human  being  has  a  right  to  inflict  on  another,  no  mat- 
ter what  the  provocation.  Vote  against  all  attempts  to 
introduce  into  the  criminal  code  of  your  State,  as  penalty 
for  any  offense,  solitary  confinement,  at  all  events  for  more 
than  a  few  months.  Prolonged  beyond  that  time,  it  is  tor- 
ture, and  not  reformatory  punishment !  "  "  I  told  him,'' 
says  Owen,  "  I  should  surely  conform  to  his  advice,  and 
when,  seven  or  eight  years  later,  I  served  in  the  Indiana 
legislature,  I  kept  my  promise." 

Out  of  all  the  service  which  in  his  illustrious  career  as 
editor  and  legislator  he  rendered  to  the  cause  of  humanity, 
none  was  more  efficient  and  certainly  none  attracted  more 
attention  than  the  determined  battle  which  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century  he  waged  in  behalf  of  woman's  rights. 
Though  he  believed  in  woman  suffrage,  yet,  feeling  in- 
tuitively that  the  time  was  not  ripe  for  its  attainment,  he 
devoted  his  efforts  to  the  legal  emancipation  of  married 
women  from  other  and  more  crying  injustice. 

Till  the  late  '40s  the  Common  Law  provisions  re- 
specting the  property  rights  of  married  women  obtained  in 
every  State  save  Louisiana.  These  provisions  wrested  from 
married  women  all  property  rights.  If  an  unmarried 
woman  through  gift  or  inheritance  came  into  possession  of 
property,  real  or  personal,  she  forfeited  all  claim  to  it  and 
all  right  to  its  management  and  control  when  she  married. 
It  then  at  once  became  the  property  of  her  husband,  and 
if  he  died  leaving  no  children  it  passed  to  his  nearest  kin, 
leaving  the  widow  with  but  a  dower  in  real  estate  and  sl 
small  share  in  the  personal  property. 

Bitter  was  the  indictment  which  in  the  columns  of 

200 


WOMAN   AT   NEW   HARMONY 

the  Free  Enquirer,  Owen,  out  of  a  deep-seated  love  of 
justice  and  fair  play,  brought  against  the  oppression  which 
the  Common  Law  inflicted  upon  woman. 

"  How,  but  from  the  monopoly  of  legal  authority  and 
the  consequent  partiality  of  legal  rights,  shall  we  account 
for  the  fact  that  at  this  day  of  comparative  civilization 
the  person  and  the  property  of  a  married  woman  belong  to 
her  matrimonial  master,  as  in  the  case  of  any  other  slave  ? 
She  can  inherit  nothing,  receive  nothing,  earn  nothing, 
which  her  husband  can  not,  at  any  time,  legally  wrest  f  roin 
her.  All  her  rights  are  swallowed  up  in  his.  She  loses,  as 
it  were,  her  individual  existence.  She  may  be — ^thanks  to 
occasional  and  gratuitous  generosity  she  sometimes  is — 
kindly  and  even  rationally  treated;  but  she  has  no  right 
to  demand — I  will  not  say  kindness — ^but  even  the  most 
common  justice  or  humanity.  A  man  may  not  beat  his 
wife  too  unmercifully,  nor  is  he  allowed  to  kill  her.  Short 
of  this  he  can  scarcely  transgress  the  law,  so  far  as  she  is 
concerned.  When  we  find  justice  and  affection  among 
those  who  are  commanded  by  law  to  love  each  other — 
and  whatever  the  satirist  may  say,  these  are  now  and  then 
to  be  found,  if  we  are  but  patient  and  persevering  enough 
in  our  search  after  them — when,  I  say,  we  find  such  senti- 
ments as  these  among  married  persons,  let  us  recollect  that 
they  exist  in  despite  of  the  unjust  and  partial  laws  that 
tend  to  exclude  and  destroy  them." 

Eobert  Dale  Owen  both  practised  and  advocated  the 
inviolate  sacredness  of  the  marriage  relation.  Like  his 
distinguished  father,  however,  he  objected  to  the  usual 
form  of  marriage  ceremony.  A  romantic  courtship  termi- 
nated in  the  marriage  of  the  younger  Owen  and  Mary 
Eobinson  in  the  city  of  New  York  on  the  12th  day  of 
April,  1832.  The  ceremony  was  simple  and  unique.  The 
contracting  parties  signed  a  written  document,  witnessed 
by  the  attending  justice  of  the  peace  and  the  immediate 
family,  concluding  as  follows: 

201 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 


cc 


Of  the  unjust  rights  which  in  virtue  of  this  ceremony 
an  iniquitous  law  tacitly  gives  me  over  the  person  and 
property  of  another,  I  can  not  legally,  but  I  can  morally 
divest  myself.  And  I  hereby  distinctly  and  emphatically 
declare  that  I  consider  myself,  and  earnestly  desire  to  be 
considered  by  others,  as  utterly  divested,  now  and  during 
the  rest  of  my  life,  of  any  such  rights,  the  barbarous  relics 
of  a  feudal,  despotic  system,  soon  destined,  in  the  onward 
course  of  improvement,  to  be  wholly  swept  away;  and  the 
existence  of  which  is  a  tacit  insult  to  the  good  sense  and 
good  feeling  of  this  comparatively  civilized  age/^ 

To  make  the  parallel  complete  between  his  own  and  his 
father's  position  with  reference  to  the  relation  that  should 
exist  between  the  sexes,  Robert  Dale  Owen  did  not  escape 
tbe  same  charge  of  being  an  advocate  of  free  love  that  had 
been  urged  against  the  unblemished  public  and  private  life 
of  the  elder  Owen.  Its  best  refutation  is  the  description 
which  his  talented  daughter  gives  of  the  happiness  and 
purity  of  the  family  life  that  grew  out  of  the  younger 
Owen's  strange  compact.  In  the  History  of  Woman 
Suffrage  (vol.  i,  pages  293-306),  Rosamond  Dale  Owen 
writes : 

"  After  a  wedding  tour  in  Europe,  the  young  couple, 
returning  to  America,  settled  in  New  Harmony,  Indiana, 
a  small  Western  village,  where  their  father,  Robert  Owen, 
had  been  making  experiments  in  community  life. 

"  It  was  a  strange,  new  world  into  which  these  two 
young  creatures  were  entering.  The  husband  had  passed 
his  youth  in  a  well-ordered,  wealthy  English  household ;  the 
wife  had  passed  the  greater  part  of  her  girlhood  in  Vir- 
ginia, among  slaves.  They  were  now  thrown  upon  the 
crudities  of  Western  life,  and  encountered  those  daily 
wearing  trials  which  strain  the  marriage  tie  to  the  utmost, 
even  though  it  be  based  upon  principles  of  justice.  But 
there  was  a  reserve  of  energy  and  endurance  in  this  deli- 
cately reared  pair;  they  felt  themselves  to  be  pioneers  in 

202 


WOMAN   AT  NEW   HARMONY 

every  sense  of  the  word,  and  the  animus  which  sustains 
many  a  struggling  soul  seeking  to  turn  a  principle  into  a 
living  reality,  sustained  these  two. 

"...  While  my  father  was  exerting  his  energies  for 
the  welfare  of  the  nation,  my  mother  was  giving  her  life 
to  her  children.  Sons  and  daughters  were  welcomed  into 
the  Owen  homestead,  and  the  wide  halls  and  great  rooms  of 
the  rambling  country  house  rang  with  the  voices  of  chil- 
dren. Three  of  these  little  ones  slipped  back  to  Heaven 
before  the  portals  had  closed.  The  stricken  parents,  with 
blinded  eyes,  met  only  the  rayless  emptiness  of  unbelief. 
May  God  help  the  mother,  fainting  beneath  a  bereavement 
greater  than  she  can  bear,  who  cries  for  help  and  finds 
none;  who  stretches  her  empty  arms  upward  in  an  agony 
of  appeal  and  is  answered  by  the  hollow  echo  of  her  own 
cry ;  may  God  help  her,  for  she  is  beyond  the  help  of  man. 
Other  children  came  to  fill  the  vacant  places,  other  voices 
filled  the  air,  but  the  hearts  of  father  and  mother  were  not 
filled  until  years  later,  when  a  sweet  faith  thrilled  the 
hopeless  blank.  .  .  .  Well  do  I  remember  the  cheer 
of  this  our  home.  Simple  were  its  duties,  simple  indeed 
its  pleasures.  Well  do  I  remember  the  busy  troop  of  boys 
and  girls,  with  the  busy  mother  at  their  head,  directing 
their  exuberant  energy  with  a  rare  administrative  ability. 
Besides  her  own  children,  four  of  whom  reached  maturity, 
she  took  during  her  life  seven  other  young  people  under 
her  protection,  so  that  the  great  old-fashioned  house  was 
always  filled  to  overflowing  with  fresh  young  life.     .     .     . 

"  When  her  children  were  grown,  and  the  task  she  had 
undertaken  years  before  had  been  well  done,  our  mother 
turned  her  attention  for  a  time  to  public  work.  She  gave 
much  thought  to  the  Woman  Question,  especially  that 
portion  of  it  pertaining  to  woman^s  work,  and  addressed 
one  or  two  meetings  in  New  York  on  this  subject.  Miss 
Anthony  recently  said  to  me :  ^  Miss  Owen,  you  do  not 
know  how  great  an  impression  your  mother  made  upon 

203 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

us — ^a  woman  who  had  lived  nearly  her  whole  life  in  a  small 
Western  village,  absorbed  in  petty  cares,  and  yet  who  could 
stand  before  us  with  a  calm  dignity,  telling  us  searching 
truths  in  simple  and  strong  words/  The  only  lecture  I 
heard  my  mother  deliver  was  in  the  church  of  our  village. 
Her  subject  was  the  rearing  of  children.  A  calm  light 
rested  on  her  silver  hair  and  broad  brow ;  her  manner  was 
the  earnest  manner  of  a  woman  who  has  looked  into  the 
heart  of  life.  Blessed  is  the  daughter  to  whom  it  is  given 
to  reverence  a  mother  as  I  reverenced  mine  that  night. 
A  quiet,  but  deep  attention  was  given  to  her  words,  for 
the  fathers  and  mothers  who  were  listening  to  her  knew 
that  she  was  speaking  on  a  subject  to  which  she  had 
given  long  years  of  careful  thought  and  faithful  en- 
deavor.   .     .    . 

"  The  name  of  Mary  Owen  was  not  written  upon  the 
brains  of  men,  but  it  is  graven  upon  the  hearts  of  these 
her  children;  so  long  as  they  live,  the  blessed  memory  of 
that  home  shall  abide  with  them,  a  home  wherein  all  that 
was  sweet,  and  strong,  and  true  was  nurtured  by  a  wise 
hand,  was  sunned  into  blossoming  by  a  loving  heart. 

"  A  benediction  rests  upon  the  brow  of  him  who  has 
given  his  best  work  to  help  this  world  onward,  even  though 
it  be  but  a  hair's  breadth ;  but  the  mother  who  has  given 
herself  to  her  children  through  long  years  of  an  unwritten 
self-abnegation,  who  has  thrilled  every  fiber  of  their  beings 
with  faith  in  God  and  hope  in  man,  a  faith  and  a  hope 
which  no  canker-worm  of  worldly  experience  can  ever  eat 
away,  she  shall  be  crowned  with  a  sainted  halo." 

The  election  in  1836  of  the  younger  Owen  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Indiana  legislature,  in  which  he  served  two 
consecutive  terms,  gave  that  earnest  champion  of  woman's 
rights  a  long  cherished  opportunity  to  write  some  of  his 
advanced  theories,  concerning  the  legal  relation  of  the 
sexes,  into  statutes.  In  the  twenty-second  session  (1837-'38) 
he  sought  to  have  a  bill  passed  giving  married  women  sepa- 

204 


WOMAN  AT  NEW   HARMONY 

rate  property  rights.  His  effort  met  with  overwhelming 
defeat.  In  the  same  year.  Judge  Hertell,  the  pioneer 
champion  of  woman's  rights  in  New  York,  endeavored  to 
have  the  legislature  of  that  commonwealth  take  the  same 
action.  His  attempt  suffered  the  same  fate  as  that  of  his 
Western  contemporary.  Owen  renewed  the  battle  in  the 
twenty-third  session  but  without  avail.  In  the  twenty- 
second  session  he  did  succeed  in  abolishing  the  Common- 
Law  dower  by  which  the  widow  received  only  a  tenancy  or 
life  interest  in  one-third  of  her  deceased  husband's  real 
estate.  His  statute  conferred  upon  her  the  absolute  owner- 
ship of  one-third  of  all  of  her  husband's  property. 

Elected  a  member  of  the  second  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  1850,  Mr.  Owen  renewed  the  battle  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  barbarities  of  the  Common  Law  with 
respect  to  married  women,  that  he  had  inaugurated  in  the 
earlier  years.  Early  in  the  convention,  as  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  rights  and  privileges,  he  proposed  that 
this  provision  be  incorporated  into  the  bill  of  rights  of 
the  New  Constitution : 

"  Women  hereafter  married  in  this  State  shall  have  the 
right  to  acquire  and  possess  property  to  their  sole  use  and 
disposal ;  and  laws  shall  be  passed  securing  to  them  under 
equitable  conditions  all  property,  real  and  personal, 
whether  owned  by  them  before  marriage  or  acquired  by 
them  afterward  by  purchase,  gift,  devise,  or  descent;  and 
also  providing  for  the  wife's  separate  property." 

This  proposition  was  fiercely  opposed  on  the  floor  of 
the  convention.  With  the  earnestness  and  bitterness 
usually  born  of  sane  convictions,  these  ultraconservative 
members  of  the  dominant  sex  resisted  Owen's  manly  at- 
tempt to  render  a  simple  and  tardy  justice  to  woman,  with 
declarations  of  this  type : 

"  I  am  of  opinion  that  to  adopt  the  proposition  of  the 
gentleman  from  Posey  (Mr.  Owen)  will  not  ameliorate 
the  condition  of  married  women." 

205 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

'^  I  can  not  see  the  propriety  of  establishing  for  women 
a  distinct  and  separate  interest,  the  consideration  of  which 
would,  of  necessity,  withdraw  their  attention  from  that 
sacred  duty  which  nature  has,  in  its  wisdom,  assigned  to 
their  peculiar  care.  I  think  the  law  which  unites  in  one 
common  bond  the  pecuniary  interests  of  husband  and  wife 
should  remain.  The  sacred  ordinance  of  marriage,  and  the 
relations  growing  out  of  it,  should  not  be  disturbed.  The 
Common  Law  does  seem  to  me  to  afford  sufficient  protec- 
tion." 

"  If  the  law  is  changed,  I  believe  that  a  most  essential 
injury  would  result  to  the  endearing  relations  of  married 
life.  Controversies  would  arise,  husbands  and  wives  would 
become  armed  against  each  other,  to  the  utter  destruction 
of  true  felicity  in  married  life." 

"  To  adopt  it  would  be  to  throw  a  whole  population 
morally  and  politically  into  confusion.  Is  it  necessary  to 
explode  a  volcano  under  the  foundation  of  the  family 
union  ?  " 

"  I  object  to  the  gentleman's  proposition,  because  it  is 
in  contravention  of  one  of  the  great  fundamental  principles 
of  the  Christian  religion.  The  Common  Law  only  em- 
bodies the  divine  law." 

"  Give  to  the  wife  a  separate  interest  in  law,  and  all 
those  high  motives  to  restrain  the  husband  from  wrong- 
doing will  be,  in  a  great  degree,  removed." 

"  I  firmly  believe  that  it  would  diminish,  if  it  did  not 
totally  annihilate,  woman's  influence." 

"  Woman's  power  comes  through  a  self-sacrificing 
spirit,  ready  to  offer  up  all  her  hopes  upon  the  shrine  of 
her  husband's  wishes." 

"  Sir,  we  have  got  along  for  eighteen  hundred  years, 
and  shall  we  change  now?  Our  fathers  have  for  many 
generations  maintained  the  principle  of  the  Common  Law 
in  this  regard  for  some  good  and  weighty  reasons." 

*^  The  immortal  Jefferson,  writing  in  reference  to  the 

206 


WOMAN   AT  NEW   HARMONY. 

then  state  of  society  in  France,  and  the  debauched  condi- 
tion thereof,  attributes  the  whole  to  the  effects  of  the  civil 
law,  then  in  force  in  France,  permitting  the  wife  to  hold, 
acquire,  and  own  property  separate  and  distinct  from  the 
husband." 

"  It  is  not  because  I  love  justice  less,  but  woman  more, 
that  I  oppose  this  section." 

"  This  doctrine  of  separate  estate  will  stifle  all  the 
finer  feelings,  blast  the  brightest,  fairest,  happiest  hopes 
of  the  human  family  and  go  in  direct  contravention  of  that 
law  which  bears  the  everlasting  impress  of  the  Almighty 
hand.  Sir,  I  consider  such  a  scheme  not  only  as  wild,  but 
as  wicked,  if  not  in  its  intentions,  at  least  in  its  results." 

Nor  did  the  opponents  of  the  proposed  constitutional 
provision  neglect  to  rain  down  misrepresentation  and 
abuse  upon  the  devoted  head  of  its  author.  Every  visionary 
idea  for  which  the  Owens  had  stood,  those  well-meant,  but 
unhappy  experiments  on  the  Wabash,  their  peculiar  views 
respecting  the  marriage  ceremony,  and  their  avowed  lack 
of  orthodoxy  were  pictured  and  denounced  before  the  con- 
vention. These  attacks  the  younger  Owen  met  with  a  cour- 
tesy and  yet  with  a  courage  and  skill  in  debate  which  dis- 
armed the  assaults  of  his  enemies  and  won  for  all  time 
the  respect  of  the  country  for  the  foremost  legislative 
champion  with  whom  the  American  woman  has  thus  far 
been  blessed. 

Though  defeated  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  Mr. 
Owen,  as  a  member  of  the  first  legislature  under  the  new 
instrument  of  government,  renewed  the  fight  for  the 
property  rights  of  women.  The  following  is  a  summary 
of  the  features  which  he  contributed  to  the  Indiana  law : 

(a)  He  procured  for  women  the  right  to  own  and  con- 
trol their  separate  property  during  marriage. 

(b)  He  procured  for  married  women  the  right  to 
their  own  earnings. 

(c)  He  abolished  the  simple  dower  of  the  Common 

207 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

Law  and  procured  for  widows  the  absolute  ownersMp  of 
one-third  of  the  deceased  husband's  property.  Owen  ac- 
complished this  in  1838.  The  session  of  1841  overthrew 
the  reform.    He  reestablished  it  in  1852. 

(d)  He  modified  the  divorce  laws  of  the  State  so  as 
to  enable  a  married  woman  to  secure  relief  from  habitual 
drunkenness  and  cruelty. 

For  his  persistent  and  finally  successful  efforts  to  re- 
form unjust  laws,  the  women  of  Indiana,  or  a  compara- 
tively small  number  of  them,  in  1851,  presented  him  with 
a  handsome  silver  pitcher,  inscribed,  "  Presented  to  the 
Hon.  Eobert  Dale  Owen  by  the  women  of  Indiana,  in  ac- 
knowledgment of  his  true  and  noble  advocacy  of  their  in- 
dependent rights  to  property,  in  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  Indiana."  The  presentation  took  place  before  a 
large  audience  in  the  hall  of  the  House  on  the  evening  of 
May  28,  1851. 

The  women  of  this  country  owe  to  Robert  Dale  Owen  a 
debt  of  gratitude  which  they  can  discharge  in  no  better  way 
than  by  a  tardy  respect  for  his  memory.  And  nearly  a 
half  century  after  Robert  Dale  Owen  wrote  into  the  statute 
law  of  his  adopted  State  the  modern  conception  of  the  legal 
righte  of  women,  we  find  the  women's  clubs  of  Indiana 
cooperating  in  a  movement  to  place  the  bust  of  their  great 
emancipator  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Indiana  State  capitol, 
almost  on  the  site  of  the  structure  within  which  he  carried 
on  his  victorious  battle  in  their  behalf. 


208 


j 

CHAPTER   XX 

THE   EDUCATIONAL    EXPEEIMENT  1 

i 
*'  Awake !  ye  sons  of  light  and  joy,  '. 

And  scout  the  Demon  of  the  schools  :  i 

The  fiend  that  scowls  but  to  decoy, 

To  pamper  zealots  :  frighten  fools  : 

To  blind  the  judgment :  crib  the  soul. 

"Wake  up !     And  let  your  actions  tell 

That  you  with  Peace  and  Virtue  dwell.  I 

i 

*' Away  with  studied  form  and  phrase,  ^ 

Away  with  cant,  and  bigot  zeal,  | 

Let  Truth's  unclouded  beacon  blaze,  j 

From  Nature's  kindness  learn  to  feel : 
From  Nature's  kindness  learn  to  give 

Your  hands,  your  hearts,  to  all  that  live.  ' 

Wake  up !     'Tis  deeds  alone  can  tell  i 

That  you  with  Peace  and  Virtue  dwell. "  \ 

— Poem  dedicated  to  the  children  of  the  New  Harmony  Boarding-  , 

School^  New  Harmony  Gazette.^  October  8^  1825.  i 

"  An  age  of  hatred,  strife  and  woe  ; 

Has  long  in  terror  reigned.  , 

Its  numerous  victims  are  laid  low,  . 

The  world  in  blood  is  stained,  : 

But  now  the  time  is  coming  fast  , 

When  strife  shall  be  forever  past  ' 

CHORUS  '  j 

*'  The  day  of  peace  begins  to  dawn,  \ 

Huzza !  Huzza !  Huzza ! 

Dark  Error's  might  will  soon  be  gone,  r 

Huzza  !  Huzza !  Huzza !  ; 

Poor  mortals  long  have  been  astray,  '■ 

But  Knowledge  now  will  lead  the  way,  j 

Huzza !  Huzza !  Huzza !  ] 

15  209  I 

i 
i 

\ 


THE  NEW  HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

**  Now  Vice  and  Crime  no  more  shall  stalk 
Unseen  in  open  day, 
To  cross  our  silent,  peaceful  walk 
Through  life's  enchanting  way  : 
Old  Ignorance  with  hoary  head 
Must  seek  his  everlasting  bed. 

"  Each  warrior  now  may  sheath  his  blade 
And  toil  in  vain  no  more, 
To  seek  fair  Virtue's  genial  shade, 
For  now  all  wars  are  o'er. 

The  battle's  done,  the  day  is  won. 
The  victory's  gained  by  Truth  alone," 

— Song  written  for  the  children  of  New  ffarmoni/. 

"  Man  does  not  form  his  own  character  but  it  is  made 
for  him.^^  This  is  the  motto  which  Eobert  Owen  caused  to 
be  inscribed  upon  the  title-page  of  every  issue  of  the  New 
Harmony  Gazette,  a  publication  which  was  at  once  the 
official  organ  of  the  Communities  and  the  medium  through 
which  Owen  and  those  associated  with  him  exploited  their 
peculiar  social,  educational,  and  religious  ideas.  By  this 
Owen  meant  to  declare  in  the  language  of  psychology  that, 
though  heredity,  will,  and  environment  are  the  forces 
which  mold  the  characters  of  men,  the  greatest  of  these  is 
environment.  It  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  and  pur- 
pose of  this  chapter  to  discuss  the  truth  of  Owen's  belief. 
To  do  so  would  be  to  reopen  an  ancient  battle  of  the 
psychologists  in  which  the  victor  is  yet  to  be  named.  But, 
in  order  to  understand  the  various  schemes  which  the 
founder  of  New  Harmony  projected  for  the  betterment  of 
society  in  general  and  of  the  working  class  in  particular, 
it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  he  always  believed  that 
men  were  the  creatures  of  their  surroundings — that  they 
were  in  a  sense  but  the  clay  which  the  Great  Potter  presses 
against  the  plastic  wheel  of  circumstance. 

There  is  a  sense  too  in  which  environment  is  to-day 
recognized  as  a  greater  factor  in  the  shaping  of  human 

210 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

character  than  in  the  days  when  Owen  wrought.  We  have 
come  to  recognize  what  Owen  saw,  though  his  age  did  not, 
that  the  much  vaunted  human  will  itself,  if  not  largely  the 
result  of  the  many-sided  circumstances  which  have  touched 
it,  can  be  and  is  being  skilfully  trained  in  the  schools,  a 
training  which  one  must  of  necessity  denominate  as  en- 
vironment. 

There  are  two  great  agencies  which  the  social  reformer 
may  invoke  in  his  efforts  to  regenerate  society.  These  are 
environment  and  religion.  Acquiring  at  the  very  outset  of 
his  remarkable  efforts  for  the  betterment  of  his  fellows  a 
deep-set  hatred  for  the  clergy  and  the  church,  Owen  de- 
liberately divorced  his  social  schemes  from  the  aid  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  pinned  his  faith  to  environment, 
which  to  him  was  the  only  medium  whereby  the  character 
of  the  individual  could  be  bettered  and  a  Golden  Age  be 
consummated. 

Out  of  his  belief  in  the  all  potency  of  environment  as  a 
reforming  agency  came  his  doctrine  that  it  is  vitally  im- 
portant that  human  beings  be  surrounded  with  circum- 
stances favorable  to  their  development.  "  How  may  we 
make  men  and  society  better  ?  "  The  most  unselfish  social 
reformer  since  the  days  of  Savonarola  would  answer,  "  By 
making  their  environment  better."  The  story  of  Eobert 
Owen^s  career  as  philanthropist  and  reformer  is  the  story 
of  one  man's  earnest  efforts,  some  wise  and  some  unwise, 
to  surround  human  beings  with  more  favorable  conditions, 
within  which,  if  Owen's  theory  be  true  at  least,  they  must 
of  necessity  become  better  men  and  better  women. 

To  him  there  were  at  least  four  phases  of  the  environ- 
ment surrounding  the  subjects  of  his  philanthropy  from 
time  to  time.  These  phases  were  their  home  environment, 
their  social  environment,  their  industrial  environment  and 
their  educational  environment. 

It  was  home  environment  he  sought  to  better  when  he 
taught  the  people  of  New  Lanark  cleanly  habits  and  en- 

211 


.  THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

forced  in  the  houses  of  the  employees  of  his  cotton-mills  a 
rigorous  sanitation.  It  was  only  in  order  that  the  deplor- 
able industrial  conditions  under  which  the  English  factory- 
hand  labored  might  be  made  such  as  should  give  him  at 
least  a  chance  to  become  a  man,  that  Owen  began  that 
wonderful  sixteen  years  of  agitation  of  the  labor  problem 
which  culminated  in  the  quickening  of  the  conscience  of 
the  British  public,  in  the  enactment  of  child-labor  laws, 
in  increased  wages  for  the  productive  classes,  in  parlia- 
mentary regulations  of  factory  sanitation,  in  the  inaugura- 
tion and  firm  establishment  of  the  idea  that  government 
has  a  right,  in  the  interest  of  common  justice  and  the 
general  welfare,  to  interfere  in  internal  trade  and  with 
industrial  relations. 

Swept  from  his  usual  safe  moorings  as  a  practical  busi- 
ness man  by  his  strong  belief  that  under  ideal  surround- 
ings a  perfect  race  might  be  developed,  the  hero  of  New 
Lanark  sought  to  establish  at  New  Harmony  an  ideal 
social  environment  within  which,  unhampered  by  the  arti- 
ficial atmosphere  with  which  our  social  system  has  en- 
veloped us,  man,  living  close  to  nature,  might  work  out  a 
better  character  and  attain  a  more  perfect  manhood. 

So  it  was  when  Eobert  Owen  sought  to  change  the 
educational  surroundings  of  the  children  of  his  benef- 
icence. So  far  as  his  connection  with  schools  was  con- 
cerned, they  were  only  a  phase  of  his  struggle  to  create 
a  better  environment  for  the  development  of  character 
among  the  working  people  who  were  the  object  of  his  care. 
In  his  days  no  schools  opened  their  doors  to  the  children 
of  the  poor.  Forced  into  the  factory  at  a  tender  age, 
denied  even  the  rudiments  of  an  education  and  surrounded 
at  home  by  squalor  and  vice,  these  unfortunates  grew  into 
a  distorted  and  debased  maturity.  To  Owen,  the  school 
was  a  weapon  for  social  regeneration  to  be  used  as  a  device 
by  which  these  children  of  the  great  Fourth  Estate  might 
be  surrounded  by  a  refining  atmosphere  during  their  tender 

212 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

and  formative  years.  He  was  not  an  educator  in  the  sense 
in  which  we  use  the  term  to-day.  He  was  not  a  teacher 
and  did  not  attempt  to  act  as  one.  Unlike  the  schools 
which  Pestalozzi  established,  his  schools  were  not  experi- 
ments made  for  the  purpose  of  testing  and  proving  the 
efficiency  of  preconceived  educational  theories  nor  attempts 
to  exploit  any  pet  methods  and  devices  of  teaching.  They 
were  machinery  for  social  and  moral  regeneration. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  primarily,  Eobert  Owen  was 
a  social  and  a  moral  rather  than  an  educational  reformer. 
And  yet  we  shall  see  that  his  search  for  social  and  moral 
reform  through  the  avenue  of  the  schools  led  him  into 
educational  innovations,  which  justify  us  in  placing  his 
name  high  in  the  list  of  great  educational  thinkers. 

THE    SCHOOL    AT    NEW    LANAEK 

Sixteen  years  after  assuming  charge  of  the  mills  at  New 
Lanark,  Robert  Owen  made  his  first  experiment  in  edu- 
cation as  a  means  of  social  reform  by  founding  a  school  for 
the  benefit  of  the  children  of  that  dreary  factory  town. 
From  An  Outline  of  the  System  of  Education  at  New 
Lanark,  written  by  Eobert  Dale  Owen  during  the  existence 
of  the  school  and  dedicated  to  his  distinguished  father, 
we  learn  that  the  training  was  given  in  special  quarters 
erected  for  that  purpose;  that  these  quarters  were  made 
much  more  attractive  for  the  children  of  the  factory- 
hands  than  those  of  many  of  the  most  prominent  board- 
ing-schools of  Dickens'  day;  that  a  large  play-room,  the 
first  which  the  history  of  pedagogy  has  recorded,  was 
attached  to  the  school;  and  that  the  enrolment  exceeded 
seven  hundred. 

Of  this  number,  one  hundred  children  between  the  ages 
of  two  and  five  years  were  taught  in  what,  for  want  of  a 
better  name,  was  termed  the  infants'  school;  and  six  hun- 
dred over  five  years  of  age  in  a  higher  or  advanced  school. 

213 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

These  six  hundred  pupils  of  the  higher  school  were 
divided  into  two  sections  of  three  hundred  each.  The 
first  section,  consisting  of  children  between  the  ages  of 
five  and  ten  years,  constituted  a  day-school ;  and  the  second 
section,  consisting  of  the  children  over  ten  years  of  age, 
who  worked  in  the  factory  during  the  day,  constituted  a 
night-school.  Both  the  infant  school  and  the  higher 
school  were  in  session  each  day  of  the  week  save  Sunday 
from  7.30  to  9.30  A.  M.,  from  10  to  12  a.  m.,  and  from  3  to 
5  p.  M. ;  while  the  night  session  of  the  higher  school  began 
at  7  and  closed  at  9.30  p.  m. 

Of  the  two  schools,  which  were  really  two  departments 
of  a  single  school  held  under  a  common  roof,  the  infant 
school  received  the  greater  portion  of  Owen^s  enthusiasm 
and  attention.  It  was  not  only  the  feature  of  the  educa- 
tional work  projected  by  him  at  New  Lanark  which 
attracted  more  attention  and  drew  more  distinguished 
visitors  there  than  did  all  the  other  innovations  which  he 
introduced  into  town  and  factory,  but  it  is  also  that  feature 
which,  perhaps  more  than  any  other  educational  experi- 
ment he  attempted  in  his  long  career  as  a  reformer,  best 
entitles  him  to  be  classed  as  a  pioneer  and  thinker  in  the 
educational  field. 

For  the  infant  schools  of  that  isolated  Scottish  factory 
town  were  the  first  of  their  kind,  and  to  Eobert  Owen 
rather  than  to  Froebel  must  be  given  the  credit  for  the 
discovery  and  practical  application  of  the  idea  that  there 
is  a  type  of  educational  training  beneficial  to  both  intellect 
and  moral  fiber,  which  can  be  successfully  given  by  the 
schools  to  children  under  the  tender  age  of  five  years. 
Strip  from  the  kindergarten  as  we  know  it  to-day  the  gifts 
and  the  games,  the  devices  and  the  educational  ideas  with 
which  the  name  of  Froebel  will  ever  be  associated,  and  look 
upon  it  as  a  garden  for  the  training  of  children,  and  we 
may  say  without  fear  of  giving  oifense  that  Eobert  Owen 
was  the  founder  of  the  first  kindergarten.     The  infant 

'  214 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

school  at  New  Lanark  was  inaugurated  in  the  year  1816. 
It  was  not  until  twenty-one  years  later  (1837)  that  Froebel 
opened  his  first  kindergarten,  or  "  Garden  of  Children," 
in  the  village  of  Blankenburg. 

This  little  village  is  not  more  than  fifty  miles  distant 
from  the  town  of  Hofwyl,  where  M.  De  Fellenberg  con- 
ducted a  school  whose  training  was  based  upon  the  edu- 
cational ideas  of  Pestalozzi  and  to  which  Eobert  Owen 
sent  his  sons  for  an  education.  Here,  in  1819,  eighteen 
years  before  Froebel  established  his  garden  for  children  at 
Blankenburg,  came  Eobert  Owen  to  investigate  Pestalozzi's 
ideas  and  methods  of  teaching.  For  three  years  previous 
to  this  time,  Eobert  Owen  had  been  carrying  on  a  school 
at  New  Lanark.  We  know  but  little  concerning  the  in- 
struction in  it  during  this  period,  for  his  educational  work 
at  New  Lanark  had  not  as  yet  attracted  public  attention. 
We  do  know  that,  visiting  Hofwyl,  with  a  kindling  en- 
thusiasm for  educational  reform,  he  received  there  both 
information  and  added  enthusiasm. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Owen  was  greatly  influ- 
enced in  his  educational  thought  by  his  visit  to  Hofwyl  and 
his  contact  with  the  educational  principles  laid  down  by 
Pestalozzi.  Owen  and  Pestalozzi  were  kindred  spirits. 
Both,  like  Abou-ben-Adhem  of  old,  loved  their  fellow  men ; 
both  sought  to  raise  the  laboring  class  out  of  a  degraded 
state;  both  had  an  abiding  faith  in  the  potential  uplifting 
of  the  common  people;  both  believed  that  education  was  a 
necessary  means  by  which  that  uplifting  was  to  be  con- 
summated. To  the  question,  how  may  the  peasantry  be 
raised  out  of  its  degraded  state,  Pestalozzi  had  one  answer, 
and  only  one.  This  was,  hy  education.  More  a  man  of 
affairs  and  a  deeper  student  of  the  whole  sweep  of  the 
social  problem  than  Pestalozzi,  Owen  sought  the  aid  of 
every  phase  of  man's  environment,  yet  recognized  and  ap- 
pealed to  education  as  the  most  effective  of  all  weapons  in 
the  struggle  for  permanent  social  betterment. 

215 


THE   NEW   HAEMONY   MOVEMENT 

When  he  returned  from  Hofwyl,  whatever  may  have 
been  his  previous  views,  Eobert  Owen  transplanted  to  Brit- 
ish soil  Pestalozzi's  enthusiasm  for  education  and  many  of 
his  cardinal  educational  principles,  of  which  he  made  im- 
mediate application  in  his  school  at  New  Lanark,  then  in 
its  third  year.  If  he  had  done  nothing  else,  Owen  would 
be  entitled  to  notice  in  pedagogical  circles  as  a  carrier  of 
good  seed.  Though  not  an  educational  theorist,  he  had 
instinctively  applied  much  of  the  Pestalozzian  creed  in  his 
school  before  his  visit  to  Switzerland.  After  his  return, 
the  school  was  modeled  almost  entirely  upon  the  educa- 
tional principles  which  he  held  in  common  with  the  great 
Swiss  schoolmaster.  We  shall  see  that  this  is  particularly 
true  of  the  higher  school. 

THE    INFANT    SCHOOL 

The  infant  school,  however,  was  a  distinct  departure  in 
educational  thought  and  procedure  in  many  respects.  Its 
one  hundred  children  were  given  in  charge  of  a  simple- 
hearted,  almost  illiterate  fellow  named  Buchanan,  who, 
though  cursed  by  a  shrewish  wife,  loved  little  children, 
and  was  when  free  from  her  domination  tender  and 
skilful  in  their  moral  training.  Little  attempt  was  made 
to  impart  serious  knowledge  whether  in  or  out  of  books. 
The  children  were  gradually  and  incidentally  taught  the 
nature  and  uses  of  common  things  by  familiar  conversa- 
tion and  little  stories,  when  the  children's  curiosity  either 
on  the  playground  or  in  the  schoolroom  led  them  to  ask 
questions. 

"  Infants  above  one  year  attended  school  under  special 
care.'^  Play  and  stories  were  the  medium  through  which 
the  heart  and  mind  of  the  child  were  besieged  and  led ;  and 
games,  sometimes  within  the  attractive  schoolroom  and 
sometimes,  when  the  weather  permitted,  out  on  the  green, 
constituted  the  major  part  of  the  curriculum.    Buchanan 

216 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

was  really  the  first  kindergartner  and  Owen's  school  the 
anticipation  of  Froebel's  later  attempt.  Aside  from  the 
theory  and  the  system  which  the  Prussian  pedagogue  in- 
troduced into  the  infant  school  there  is  little  if  anything 
of  pedagogical  value  in  the  modern  kindergarten  which  is 
not  to  be  found  at  New  Lanark.  Let  us  see  if  this  can  not 
be  readily  demonstrated. 

(1)  Like  all  the  kindergartens  or  infant  schools  which 
follow  it,  the  purpose  of  Owen's  infant  school  was  to  in- 
fluence the  character  of  children  at  a  tender  and  formative 
age.  This  was  Froebel's  purpose  in  inaugurating  his 
kindergarten.  "  In  his  conference  with  teachers  Froebel 
found  that  the  schools  suffered  from  the  state  of  raw  ma- 
terial in  them.  Till  the  then  school  age  was  reached  the 
children  were  entirely  neglected.  Froebel's  conception  of 
harmonious  development  naturally  led  him  to  attach  much 
importance  to  the  earliest  years." 

Twenty-one  years  earlier  we  find  Eobert  Owen  founding 
his  infant  school  to  meet  the  same  difficulty.  Like  Froe- 
bel's school,  it  was  an  afterthought.  In  his  description  of 
the  higher  school  at  New  Lanark,  Eobert  Owen  complained 
that  the  work  was  handicapped  by  the  habits  which  the 
children  had  formed  before  the  opening  of  school-life. 
How  keenly  every  modern  school-teacher  can  sympathize 
with  this  complaint !  To  meet  it  the  infant  school  was 
established  by  means  of  which  it  was  hoped  that  children 
transplanted  at  a  tender  age  into  an  atmosphere  of  love 
and  refinement  might  be  dominated  in  their  habits  by  the 
influence  of  the  schoolroom  and  not  by  that  of  their  rude 
homes.  How  like  this  is  our  modern  practise  of  placing 
kindergartens  in  the  slums  of  the  large  cities ! 

Like  Froebel,  and  many  years  in  advance  of  Froebel, 
Robert  Owen  saw  that  "  each  age  has  a  completeness  of  its 
own.  First  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in 
the  ear.  The  perfection  of  the  later  stage  can  be  attained 
only  through  the  perfection  of  the  earlier.    If  the  infant 

217 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

is  what  he  should  be  as  an  infant  and  the  child  as  a  child, 
he  will  become  what  he  should  be  as  a  boy  just  as  naturally 
as  new  shoots  spring  from  the  healthy  plant.  Every  stage 
then  must  be  cared  for  and  tended  in  such  a  way  that  it 
may  attain  its  own  perfection." 

(2)  Like  all  the  true  kindergartens  which  follow  it,  the 
aim  of  the  infant  school  at  New  Lanark  was  not  to  impart 
serious  knowledge  whether  in  or  out  of  books,  but  to  fix 
habits  and  shape  character.  To  the  master  of  New  Lanark, 
the  formation  of  character  was  the  chief  end  of  all  educa- 
tional efforts  not  only  in  the  infant  school,  but  also  in  the 
higher  school,  where  the  imparting  of  serious  knowledge 
was  made  a  secondary  though  important  consideration. 
Almost  half  a  century  before  Dickens  attacked  the  "  cram- 
ming system  "  of  the  English  boarding-schools,  a  system 
which  throttled  the  development  of  character  as  well  as 
intellect,  Eobert  Owen  said :  "  It  must  be  evident  to  com- 
mon observers  that  children  may  be  taught  to  read,  write, 
account,  and  sew  and  may  yet  acquire  the  worst  habits  and 
have  their  minds  rendered  irrational  for  life. 
Eeading  and  writing  are  merely  instruments  by  which 
ideas  either  true  or  false  may  be  imparted,  and  when  given 
to  children  are  of  little  comparative  value  unless  the  chil- 
dren are  also  taught  how  to  make  a  proper  use  of  them." 

Of  his  infant  school  it  could  be  said  even  more  truth- 
fully than  of  Pestalozzi's  school  at  Stanz,  more  truthfully 
than  of  any  other  school  preceding  FroebeFs :  "  The  thing 
was  not  that  they  should  know  what  they  did  not  know, 
but  that  they  should  behave  as  they  did  not  behave.  If 
they  could  be  made  conscious  that  they  were  loved  and 
cared  for,  their  hearts  would  open  and  give  back  love  and 
respect  in  return." 

The  elimination  of  all  serious  knowledge,  the  absence  of 
the  teaching  of  all  facts  as  such,  is  the  feature  of  Owen's 
school  which  stamps  it  as  a  pioneer  in  a  new  field.  Over- 
enthusiastic  admirers  of  Pestalozzi  have  maintained  that 

218 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

he  operated  an  infant  school  on  the  Continent  before  the 
New  Lanark  school  came  to  be.  But  the  records  of  the 
schools  at  Neuhof  and  at  Stanz,  which  were  the  only  edu- 
cational experiments  in  which  Pestalozzi  preceded  Owen, 
reveal,  according  to  the  declarations  of  Pestalozzi  himself, 
that  the  children  of  both  schools  were  of  a  variety  of  ages, 
the  oldest  being  not  more  than  fifteen  and  the  youngest 
not  less  than  five  years  old.  Neither  was,  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  term  was  used  at  New  Lanark,  an  "  infants' " 
school.  Nor  did  Pestalozzi  ever  conduct  a  school  of  any 
type  in  which  the  acquirement  of  serious  knowledge,  the 
teaching  of  facts  as  such  was  not  made  an  important 
though  a  subordinate  aim  of  the  training  bestowed.  This 
more  than  the  difference  in  the  ages  of  the  children  is  the 
distinguishing  mark  between  the  infant  school  at  New 
Lanark  and  all  previous  educational  attempts  upon  the 
Continent. 

The  difference  between  Owen's  infant  school  and  its 
contemporaries  is  the  difference  between  the  mission  of 
the  modern  kindergarten  and  the  mission  which  this 
utilitarian  age  is  seeking  to  thrust  upon  it.  An  impatient 
thirst  for  the  glittering  prizes  of  this  industrial  epoch  has 
taken  hold  upon  the  prospective  college  student.  He  is 
asking  that  some  arrangement  be  made  so  that  he  with  his 
sheepskin  may  step  into  the  arena  of  business  or  profes- 
sional life  at  an  earlier  age.  There  are  not  wanting  signs 
to  indicate  that  in  the  interests  of  this  earlier  graduation 
the  domination  from  the  top  may  next  demand  that  the 
kindergarten  shall  serve  chiefly  as  a  preparatory  school 
for  the  primary  unit.  Then  the  kindergarten  must  decide 
whether,  like  the  other  units  of  the  system,  it  will  bow  its 
neck  to  the  yoke  or  whether,  ignoring  the  call  from  above, 
it  will  continue  to  solely  seek  the  moral  development  of  all 
childhood  rather  than  the  higher  educational  interests  of 
the  few  who  are  destined  for  college  walls. 

The  claim  has  been  made  repeatedly  and  the  dictum  ac- 

219 


TEE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

cepted  without  controversy  that  Froebel's  kindergarten  at 
Blankenburg  was  the  first  infant  school  that  did  not  at- 
tempt to  teach  any  serious  knowledge,  the  first  to  make 
games  a  means  of  training  the  character  of  children.  This 
dictum  merely  overlooks  Owen's  attempt.  It  is  true  that 
after  Pestalozzi's  repeated  failures  as  a  school  manager, 
numerous  "  infant  schools  "  arose  on  the  Continent ;  that 
these  sought  to  apply  Pestalozzian  educational  principles; 
and  that,  like  all  of  the  attempts  made  by  him  whose  ef- 
forts they  imitated,  these  infant  schools  made  the  teaching 
of  elementary  knowledge  the  nucleus  of  their  training. 
But  these  differ  as  much  from  the  infant  school  at  New 
Lanark  as  they  do  from  .the  kindergarten  at  Blankenburg, 
whose  forerunner  they  were. 

Sargent,  in  The  Social  Philosophy  of  Robert  Owen, 
says,  "  The  Infant  School  System  was  an  inevitable  con- 
sequence of  Owen's  doctrine  as  to  the  vital  importance  of 
surrounding  human  beings  with  circumstances  favorable 
to  their  development.  It  has  been  said  that  the  plan  was 
previously  carried  out  on  the  Continent.  That  may  be  true. 
It  has  also  been  said  that  the  experiment  was  suggested 
in  a  conversation  between  Owen  and  a  lady.  Both  state- 
ments may  be  true,  and  yet  Owen's  claim  to  the  invention 
remains  unimpeached.  Owen's  glory  is  not  that  he  sent  for 
a  Swiss  instructor,  nor  that  he  went  about  craving  the  ad- 
vice and  aid  of  any  one,  but  that  he  threw  his  own  energy 
into  the  work,  and  with  the  feeble  instruments  at  his  com- 
mand commenced  and  completed  his  long  projected  task." 

In  a  speech  delivered  at  a  memorial  exercise  in  Kensal 
Green  Cemetery  on  the  21st  of  April,  1871,  T.  H.  Huxley, 
the  great  English  scientist,  said : 

"  I  think  that  every  one,  who  is  compelled  to  look  as 
closely  into  the  problem  of  popular  education,  must  be  led 
to  Owen's  conclusion  that  the  infant  school  is,  so  to  speak, 
the  key  of  that  position ;  and  that  Robert  Owen  discovered 
this  great  fact  and  had  the  courage  and  patience  to  work 

220 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

out  his  theory  into  a  practical  reality  is  his  claim,  if  he 
had  no  other,  to  the  enduring  gratitude  of  the  people." 

(3)  Just  as  in  all  other  infant  schools  and  kindergar- 
tens worthy  the  name,  love  was  the  dominating  factor  in 
Owen's  school.  In  the  face  of  ridicule,  Owen  retains  as 
the  head  of  his  infant  school  a  teacher  who  is  both  illiter- 
ate and  without  professional  training  because  "  he  does  not 
know  how  to  teach  what  is  found  in  books,  but  he  does 
know  Nature  and  loves  children,  and  by  that  love  will 
bring  Nature  and  the  children  together."  With  Owen  as 
with  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel,  "  the  essential  principle  of 
education  is  not  teaching.  It  is  love.  The  child  loves 
and  believes  before  it  thinks  and  acts." 

(4)  In  the  New  Lanark  school  the  "  benevolent  super- 
intendence" which  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  practised  char- 
acterized the  teaching.  This  was  an  educational  idea 
which  Owen  received  at  the  feet  of  Pestalozzi.  His  great 
faith  in  the  ultimate  uplift  of  the  common  people  made 
him  a  steadfast  believer  in  the  innate  possibilities  of 
childhood — in  its  large  capacity  for  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral  development.  Powers  are  hereditary,  but  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  schoolroom  environment  to  assist  to  the 
fullest  extent  in  calling  them  forth.  There  is  a  natural 
method  by  which  these  powers  unfold.  The  natural 
method  is  as  certain,  if  we  could  but  discover  it,  in  the  de- 
Yelopment  of  moral  and  intellectual  powers  as  in  that  of 
physical  powers. 

Bacon  taught  that  we  command  Nature  only  by  obeying 
her.  Nature  is  in  the  schoolroom  with  the  teacher  eager 
to  assist  in  the  developing  process.  Let  the  teacher  be- 
ware lest  in  his  blind  following  of  a  system  or  in  his  devo- 
tion to  a  false  educational  creed,  or  in  his  anxiety  to  cram 
childish  minds  with  the  letter  that  killeth,  he  interfere 
with  that  development  which  Nature  at  his  elbow  seeks  to 
bring  about.  Let  him  rather  practise  that  benevolent  su- 
perintendence which   remembers   that   "the  purpose   of 

321 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

teacliing  is  to  bring  ever  more  out  of  man  rather  than  to 
put  more  and  more  into  him";  which  perceives  that  the 
purpose  of  instruction  is  not  to  teach  but  to  develop ;  which 
follows  ISTature  and  not  a  system ;  which  leads  the  mind  of 
the  child  and  yet  follows  it  with  trusting  footsteps;  and 
which  vaunteth  not  itself  but  stands  in  the  presence  of 
Nature,  the  handmaiden,  with  uncovered  head. 

To  the  criticism  that  the  teacher  of  the  infant  school  at 
New  Lanark  merely  played  with  the  children,  let  it  be 
urged  that  though  he  would  not  have  understood  the  term 
"  benevolent  superintendence,"  yet  with  Owen's  encourage- 
ment he  practised  it  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century  before 
Froebel  made  it  one  of  the  chief  features  of  his  kinder- 
garten. For  the  simple  pedagogue  of  New  Lanark  gave  his 
charges,  through  play,  that  which  Nature  asked  for  them 
at  their  stage  of  growth,  and  drew  out  of  them  through  its 
physical  exercise,  spontaneity,  quickness  of  thought  and 
action,  happiness,  and  love. 

What  part  ought  benevolent  superintendence  to  play  in 
the  schoolroom  to-day?  In  1889  Charles  De  Garmo,  in 
his  Essentials  of  Method,  after  discussing  the  question,  de- 
clared that  the  teacher  has  his  activity  limited  to  these  two 
things :  "  First,  the  preparation  of  the  child's  mind  for  a 
rapid  and  effective  assimilation  of  new  knowledge ;  second, 
the  presentation  of  the  matter  of  instruction  in  such  order 
and  manner  as  will  best  conduce  to  the  most  effective  as- 
similation." Quick,  in  his  Educational  Eef ormers,  after 
discussing  and  approving  the  above,  adds  that  "  besides 
this  he  must  make  his  pupils  use  their  knowledge,  both 
new  and  old,  and  reproduce  it  in  fresh  connections." 

(5)  Just  as  in  the  kindergarten  which  followed  it,  the 
infant  school  at  New  Lanark  brought  into  play  the  activity 
of  the  children.  While,  like  Froebel,  Owen  limited  the 
function  of  the  educator  to  "  benevolent  superintendence  " 
of  the  natural  unfolding  of  childhood,  yet,  like  Froebel 
also,  he  recognized  that  since  the  natural  development  of 

4/4/4/ 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

childisli  powers  requires  their  appropriate  exercise,  "be- 
nevolent superintendence  "  must  both  originate  and  direct 
childish  activity.  Some  of  the  games  which  Buchanan  and 
his  female  assistant  gave  to  the  children  at  New  Lanark 
were  Scottish  games  peculiar  to  the  Lowlands ;  some,  they 
devised  to  teach  indirectly  important  ethical,  moral,  and 
physical  truths;  some,  the  children  themselves  invented. 
All  were  of  a  wholesome  type  and  designed,  like  the 
games  which  Froebel  bequeathed  to  the  kindergarten,  to 
call  forth  the  spontaneous  and  untrammeled  activity  of 
the  children. 

It  must  of  course  be  admitted  that  these  games  lacked 
the  efficiency  which  the  theory,  and  the  plan,  and  the  gifts, 
and  the  system  which  Froebel  bestowed  have  given  to  the 
play  of  the  modern  kindergarten.  But  they  were  based 
upon  the  same  idea  and  sought  to  achieve  the  same  pur- 
pose. Though  Robert  Owen  did  not  possess  the  mysticism 
which  characterizes  most  of  the  utterances  of  Froebel,  he 
showed  by  his  efforts  in  the  infant  school  at  ISTew  Lanark 
that  he  too  believed  that  "  man  is  primarily  a  doer  " ;  that 
"  he  learns  only  through  self  activity '' ;  that  "  the  forma- 
tive and  creative  instinct  has  existed  in  all  children  and 
in  all  ages  '^ ;  and  that  when  the  activity  of  the  children 
is  properly  directed  by  benevolent  superintendence  they 
"  render  the  inner  outer,"  which  is  the  end  of  all  true 
education. 

HIGHER     SCHOOL 

In  the  higher  school  at  New  Lanark  the  following  sub- 
jects were  taught :  Reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  natural 
history,  geography,  ancient  history,  modern  history,  sew- 
ing, singing,  and  dancing.  No  books  were  used,  for  "  his 
aim  was  to  train  the  children  to  good  habits,  not  to  cram 
their  heads  with  facts."  Only  amusement  in  the  form  of 
games  was  offered  to  those  under  six  years  of  age.  In- 
struction was  made  pleasant  and  agreeable,  no  lesson  being 

223 


THE   NFAY   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

given  more  than  forty-five  minutes  in  length.  Much  of 
the  instruction  was  given  by  the  "  object  method,"  for  Will- 
iam Maclure,  who  visited  the  school  in  1824,  says  that 
^'  the  children  are  taught  by  representations  in  all  cases 
where  they  can  be  obtained,  the  transparent  being  used 
only  in  part  for  the  explanation  of  the  elements  of  botany, 
the  shape  of  the  leaves,  etc."  Much  attention,  and  prop- 
erly so,  for  it  is  the  basic  study  in  the  acquirement  of 
knowledge,  was  given  to  reading. 

Eobert  Dale  Owen  in  his  description  of  the  school  dwells 
but  little  upon  the  course  of  study,  but  takes  occasion  to 
say,  "  Children  should  never  be  directed  to  read  what  they 
can  not  understand.  Eeading  should  be  preceded  between 
the  ages  of  five  and  seven  years  by  a  regular  course  in 
natural  history,  ancient  and  modern  history,  chemistry, 
and  astronomy.  All  this  on  the  plan  prescribed  by  Nature 
to  give  a  child  such  particulars  as  he  can  easily  be  made  to 
understand  concerning  the  nature  and  properties  of  the 
different  objects  around  him,  before  we  teach  him  the 
artificial  signs  which  have  been  adopted  to  represent  these 
objects."  Robert  Owen  doubted  "  whether  in  a  rational 
state  of  society  children  under  ten  years  old  would  be 
taught  to  read." 

Absurd  as  was  Owen's  plan  to  prepare  children  for  in- 
telligent reading,  from  our  point  of  view,  it  was  made 
necessary  by  the  exceedingly  difficult  vocabulary  and  tech- 
nical subject-matter  in  the  most  elementary  readers  of  that 
day.  In  these  days  when  the  makers  of  readers  are,  in  the 
name  of  classical  literature,  filling  them  with  selections 
that  lie  beyond  the  vocabulary,  the  experience,  and  the  com- 
prehension of  the  children  for  whom  they  are  intended,  it 
would  be  well  to  remember  again  and  again  the  simple 
declaration :  "  Children  should  never  be  directed  to  read 
what  they  can  not  understand." 

The  higher  school,  better  than  the  infant  school,  per- 
haps, shows  the  effects  of  Owen's  visit  to  Stanz.    Through 

224 


I 


ROBERT  DALE  OWEN. 


THE  imm 

OF  THE 

1Y  OF  ILLir 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

the  meager  accounts  which  Robert  Owen,  his  son,  and  vari- 
ous visitors  to  N'ew  Lanark  have  written  concerning  the 
methods  of  instruction  in  the  higher  school,  we  can  state 
with  safety  that  in  it,  with  one  notable  exception,  the  main 
features  of  Pestalozzianism  prevailed.  Those  features  as 
summed  up  by  Morf  in  his  contribution  to  Pestalozzi's 
Biography  are: 

(1)  "Instruction  must  be  based  on  the  learner's  own 
experience. 

(2)  "What  the  learner  experiences  must  be  connected 
with  language. 

(3)  "  The  time  for  learning  is  not  the  time  for  judg- 
ing, nor  the  time  for  criticism. 

(4)  "  In  every  department  instruction  must  begin  with 
the  simplest  elements  and,  starting  from  those,  must  be 
carried  on  step  by  step  according  to  the  development  of 
the  child;  that  is,  it  must  be  brought  into  psychological 
sequence. 

(5)  "At  each  point,  the  instructor  shall  not  go  for- 
ward till  that  part  of  the  subject  has  become  the  proper 
intellectual  possession  of  the  learner. 

(6)  "Instruction  must  follow  the  path  of  develop- 
ment, not  the  path  of  lecturing,  teaching,  or  telling. 

(7)  "To  the  educator,  the  individuality  of  the  child 
must  be  sacred. 

(8)  "Not  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  or  skill  is  the 
main  object  of  elementary  instruction,  but  the  development 
and  strengthening  of  the  powers  of  the  mind. 

(9)  "With  knowledge  must  come  power,  with  infor- 
mation, skill. 

(10)  "Intercourse  between  educator  and  pupil,  and 
school  discipline  especially,  must  be  based  on  and  con- 
trolled by  love. 

(11)  "  Instruction  must  be  subordinated  to  the  aim  of 
education.^' 

The  one  tenet  of  the  creed  espoused  in  common  by  Pes- 

16  225 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

talozzi  and  by  Froebel,  which  Kobert  Owen  neither  ac- 
cepted nor  practised  in  his  various  educational  experiments 
was  the  one  which,  if  added  to  the  declaration  of  principles 
given  above,  would  be  numbered  twelve  and  reads  as  fol- 
lows :  "  The  ground  of  moral-religious  bringing-up  lies  in 
the  relation  of  mother  and  child." 

Extremely  clear  and  strong  is  the  attitude  of  Pestalozzi 
and  Froebel  with  respect  to  the  necessity  of  religious  in- 
fluence in  education.  Pestalozzi  placed  moral  and  relig- 
ious training  above  the  intellectual,  and  with  him  moral 
and  religious  training  were  one  and  the  same.  He  re- 
volted against  the  prevailing  elementary  education  of  his 
day  because  "  everywhere  in  it  the  flesh  predominated  over 
the  spirit,  everywhere  the  divine  element  was  cast  into  the 
shade.  Everywhere  selfishness  and  the  passions  were  taken 
as  the  motives  of  action."  To  him  the  education  which  was 
to  lead  forth  the  soul  powers  as  well  as  the  mind  powers 
of  the  people  must  be  different  from  this,  for  "  man  does 
not  live  by  bread  alone.  Every  child  needs  to  know  how 
to  pray  to  God  in  all  simplicity,  but  with  faith  and  love. 
If  the  religious  element  does  not  run  through  the  whole  of 
education,  this  element  will  have  little  influence  on  the 
life;  it  remains  formacl  or  isolated.  The  child  accustomed 
from  his  earliest  years  to  pray,  to  think,  and  to  work  is 
already  more  than  half  educated." 

With  Froebel,  all  true  education  was  founded  on  re- 
ligion. He  pointed  the  way  to  that  halcyon  day  when 
"  education  should  lead  and  guide  man  to  clearness  con- 
cerning himself  and  in  himself,  to  peace  with  Nature  and 
to  unity  with  God " ;  when  the  training  of  the  schools 
"  should  lift  him  to  a  knowledge  of  himself  and  of  man- 
kind, to  a  knowledge  of  God  and  Nature;  and  to  the  pure 
and  holy  life  to  which  such  knowledge  leads."  With  him 
always  "  the  object  of  education  is  the  realization  of  a 
faithful,  pure,  inviolate,  and  hence  holy  life." 

With  Froebel  as  with  Pestalozzi,  moral  and  religious 

226 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

training  were  one  and  inseparable.  Owen  divorced  the  two 
by  ignoring  in  all  of  his  educational,  as  in  all  of  his  other 
attempts  at  social  reform,  the  religious  nature  of  man.  At 
the  time  of  the  New  Lanark  experiment,  he  had  made  at 
least  no  public  declaration  of  his  religious  views.  It  was 
not  until  seventeen  years  later  that,  on  the  very  verge 
of  sweeping  reforms  in  English  factory  laws,  which  his 
unceasing  agitation  coupled  with  the  public  confidence 
reposed  in  him  had  made  possible,  Owen,  then  the  largest 
figure  in  the  public  eye,  made  such  a  sweeping  attack  upon 
all  existing  religious  creeds  and  displayed  such  a  bitter 
hatred  toward  all  existing  religious  institutions  that  he 
astounded  the  British  public,  alienated  the  support  of 
Christian  people,  defeated  his  proposed  reform  measures, 
and  handicapped  all  his  after  efforts  at  social  reform  by 
the  common  public  belief  that  they  were  the  outgrowth  of 
atheistic  and  anarchistic  tendencies.  Yet  we  find  that  even 
at  the  New  Lanark  school,  in  the  language  of  Eobert  Dale 
Owen,  "  No  religious  instruction  was  permitted,  but  much 
moral  instruction,  some  of  it  direct,  but  most  of  it  indirect, 
was  given.^^ 

Owen^s  attitude  on  the  subject  of  religious  instruction 
grew,  of  course,  out  of  his  peculiar  religious  beliefs,  so 
different  from  the  simple  trusting  faith  of  his  great  edu- 
cational contemporaries.  Though  in  reality  not  an  atheist 
in  the  sense  in  which  we  use  the  term  to-day,  his  God  was 
not  the  God  of  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel,  but  the  God  of 
Huxley — ^not  a  living,  regenerating  force  in  human  hearts 
touched  by  His  quickening  spirit,  but  a  great  creative 
force,  which,  having  endowed  life  with  potential  perfec- 
tion, has  left  it  to  be  developed  by  the  tender  mercies  of 
a  chance  environment. 

The  question  of  religious  instruction  in  the  public 
schools  has  become  a  much  mooted  one  at  the  present 
day,  particularly  in  the  United  States.  In  those  lands 
where   church  and   state   are   one,   the   question  becomes 

2211 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

comparatively  easy.  There  state  schools  become  an  arm 
of  the  church  for  the  teaching  of  its  creed — a  task 
which,  though  all  other  phases  of  educational  training 
be  neglected,  must  be  thoroughly  executed.  An  over- 
whelming public  sentiment  approves  of  the  religious  in- 
struction given  and  the  voice  of  a  hopeless  minority  is 
ignored.  But  in  this  country,  where  freedom  of  religious 
thought  and  speech  is  guaranteed  by  Constitutional  pro- 
vision, and  where  the  twenty  million  children  receiving 
public  instruction  come  from  homes  where  every  phase  of 
religious  belief  and  even  of  unbelief  finds  enthusiastic  sup- 
porters, the  problem  of  what  to  do  with  religious  instruc- 
tion in  the  schools  becomes  exceedingly  difficult. 

No  clearer  statement  of  this  problem  which  confronts 
legislatures  and  courts,  as  well  as  educators,  can  be  found 
than  that  given  by  Nicholas  Murray  Butler  in  the  Mean- 
ing of  Education  (McMillan  &  Co.,  1901,  pp.  28-31  in- 
clusive). After  tersely  setting  forth  the  difficulties  sur- 
rounding religious  instruction  in  our  educational  system, 
and  showing  that  the  drift  in  the  schools  of  the  United 
States  is  away  from  the  simple  religious  instruction  which 
Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  gave  and  toward  the  non-religious 
instruction  of  the  schools  at  New  Lanark,  Butler  comments 
as  follows :  "  Two  solutions  of  the  difficulty  are  proposed. 
One  is  that  the  State  shall  tolerate  all  existing  forms  of  re- 
ligious teaching  in  its  own  schools.  The  other  is  that  the 
State  shall  aid  by  money-grants  schools  maintained  by  re- 
ligious or  other  corporations.  Neither  suggestion  is  likely 
to  be  received  favorably  by  the  American  people  at  present, 
because  of  the  bitterness  of  the  war  between  the  denomina- 
tional theologies.  Yet  the  religious  element  may  not  be 
permitted  to  pass  wholly  out  of  education  unless  we  are  to 
cripple  it  and  render  it  hopelessly  incomplete.  It  must 
devolve  upon  the  family  and  the  church,  then,  to  give  this 
instruction  to  the  child  and  to  preserve  the  religious  in- 
sight from  loss.     Both  family  and  church  must  become 

228 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

much  more  efficient,  educationally  speaking,  than  they  are 
now,  if  they  are  to  bear  this  burden  successfully." 

While  Eobert  Dale  Owen  wrote  but  little  concerning  the 
methods  of  instruction  and  course  of  study  at  New  Lanark, 
he  has  described  at  length  the  plan  of  school  government 
and  the  moral  training  attempted  there.  From  this  de- 
scription, the  following  principles  regulating  the  New 
Lanark  schools  may  be  gathered : 

(1)  "All  rewards  and  punishments  whatever,  except 
such  as  Nature  herself  has  provided,  are  sedulously  ex- 
cluded. By  natural  punishment,  we  mean  the  necessary 
consequences  immediate  and  remote  which  result  from  any 
action."  In  his  instructions  to  the  teachers  Robert  Owen 
declared  that,  "  they  were  on  no  account  ever  to  beat  any 
one  of  the  children,  nor  to  threaten  them  in  any  manner  in 
word  or  action,  nor  to  use  abusive  terms;  but  were  always 
to  speak  to  them  with  a  pleasant  countenance  and  in  a  kind 
manner  and  tone  of  voice." 

Eobert  Dale  Owen  but  voiced  the  sentiments  of  his  dis- 
tinguished father  when  he  declared  all  rewards  and  punish- 
ments other  than  those  which  Nature  bestows  to  be  im- 
just — "  unjust  as  on  the  one  hand  loading  those  individuals 
with  supposed  advantages  and  distinctions  whom  Provi- 
dence, either  in  the  formation  of  their  talents  and  dis- 
positions or  in  the  character  of  their  parents  and  associates, 
seems  already  to  have  favored;  and  on  the  other,  as  in- 
flicting further  pain  on  those  whom  less  fortunate  circum- 
stances had  already  formed  into  weak,  vicious,  or  ignorant, 
or,  in  other  words,  into  unhappy  beings. 

-"  And  prejudicial  in  rendering  a  strong,  bold  character 
either  proud  or  overbearing,  or  vindictive  and  deceitful ;  or 
in  instilling  into  the  young  mind,  if  more  timid  and  less 
decided,  either  an  overweening  opinion  of  its  own  abilities 
and  endowments  or  a  dispiriting  idea  of  its  own  incom- 
petency— such  an  idea  as  creates  a  sullen,  hopeless  despond- 
ency and  destroys  that  elasticity  of  spirit  from  whence 

229 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

many  of  our  best  actions  proceed,  but  which  is  lost  as  soon 
as  the  individual  feels  himself  sunk,  mentally  or  morally, 
below  his  companions,  disgraced  by  punishment,  and 
treated  with  neglect  or  contempt  by  those  around  him/' 

"  Artificial  rewards  and  punishments  are  introduced ; 
and  the  child's  notions  of  right  and  wrong  are  so  confused 
by  the  substitution  of  these  for  the  natural  consequences 
resulting  from  his  conduct — his  mind  is  in  most  cases  so 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  uncharitable  notion  that  what- 
ever he  has  been  taught  to  consider  wrong  deserves  imme- 
diate punishment ;  and  that  he  himself  is  treated  unjustly 
unless  rewarded  for  what  he  believes  to  be  right;  that  it 
were  next  to  a  miracle  if  his  mind  did  not  become  more  or 
less  irrational;  or  if  he  chose  a  course  which  otherwise 
would  have  appeared  too  self-evidently  beneficial  to  be  re- 
jected/' 

(2)  ^^  Every  action  whatever  must  be  followed  by  its 
natural  reward  and  punishment/' 

(3)  "A  clear  knowledge  and  a  distinct  conviction  of 
the  necessary  consequences  of  any  particular  line  of  con- 
duct is  all  that  is  necessary,  however  skeptical  some  may 
be  on  this  point,  to  direct  the  child  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
provided  common  justice  be  done  in  regard  to  the  other 
circumstances  which  surround  him  in  infancy  and  in  child- 
hood/' 

(4)  "  Whatever  in  its  ultimate  consequences  increases 
the  happiness  of  the  community  is  right ;  and  whatever  on 
the  other  hand  tends  to  diminish  that  happiness  is  wrong/' 

( 5 )  "  The  happiness  of  the  child  is  intimately  con- 
nected with  that  of  the  community.  Experience  aids  in 
this.  Artificial  rewards  and  punishments  confuse  this 
thought.  Eightly  understood,  the  child  is  led  to  right  ac- 
tion, for  he  could  not  deliberately  make  himself  miserable 
in  preference  to  making  himself  happy." 

(6)  "A  child  who  acts  improperly  is  not  an  object  of 
blame  but  of  pity.    The  fact  of  wrong  action  simply  shows 

230 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

that  he  has  not  been  properly  trained."  Here  Robert  Dale 
Owen  draws  an  analogy  between  the  child  who  is  a  wrong- 
doer and  the  traveler  who,  improperly  directed,  takes  the 
wrong  road  and  fails  of  his  destination.  We  would  not 
think  of  chiding  or  punishing  the  traveler.  Not  he,  but 
they  who  failed  to  direct  him  properly  are  to  blame. 
Eather  will  we  care  for  his  wants,  place  him  upon  the  right 
road,  and  send  him  upon  his  way  rejoicing.  The  child  who 
has  gone  astray  is  not  to  blame;  but  those  who  have  di- 
rected him  wrong.  Like  the  traveler,  he  is  to  be  pitied,  not 
censured;  cared  for;  and  set  again  in  the  path  of  right 
action. 

Though,  as  compared  with  the  other  schools  of  the 
period,  the  New  Lanark  school  was  as  successful  education- 
ally as  the  great  cotton-mill  which  maintained  it  was 
financially,  some  of  the  same  diflBculties  were  encountered 
which  confront  the  public-school  administration  to-day. 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  recites  some  of  these : 

(1)  "  The  children  were  only  five  hours  at  school  and 
under  its  influence  each  day ;  the  remaining  nineteen  hours 
being  spent  under  the  influence  of  parents  more  or  less 
ignorant,  more  or  less  unrefined,  more  or  less  brutal  and 
vicious."  The  problem  of  the  home  handicap  is  still  with 
us,  but  it  becomes  less  serious  as  the  home  grows  better 
from  one  decade  to  another. 

(2)  "There  was  great  difficulty  in  securing  proper 
teachers  for  the  work — those  possessing  the  general  and 
particular  knowledge,  habits,  and  temper  necessary  to  suc- 
cessful teaching,  without  the  pedantry  to  which  members 
of  the  teaching  profession  are  susceptible." 

(3)  "As  soon  as  the  children  arrived  at  the  age  of  ten 
years,  they  were  withdrawn  and  placed  in  the  cotton-mills." 
Child-labor  laws  and  truancy  regulations  have  made  this 
impossible  under  the  age  of  fourteen  years  in  many  of  the 
States  of  the  Union. 

(4)  Many  of  the  children,  because  of  poor  home-train- 

231 


TEE   NEW  ^HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

ing,  had  formed  bad  habits  which  both  infant  school  and 
higher  school  found  it  difficult  to  eradicate. 

Even  in  that  day,  when  the  public  conscience  had  not 
been  quickened  in  educational  matters,  the  schools  at  New 
Lanark  attracted  wide-spread  attention.  The  visitors  who 
came  to  New  Lanark  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the  schools 
in  operation  were  very  numerous.  They  arrived  by  thou- 
sands annually.  "  I  have  seen,^^  says  Eobert  Owen,  "  as 
many  as  seventy  strangers  at  once  attending  the  early 
morning  exercises  of  the  children  in  the  school."  Among 
these  visitors  were  many  of  the  first  persons  of  the  king- 
dom as  well  as  numbers  of  illustrious  strangers.  The 
Duke  of  Holstein  (Oldenburg)  and  his  brother  stayed 
several  days  with  Owen  at  New  Lanark  that  they  might 
thoroughly  understand  the  system  of  infant  instruction 
in  operation  there.  The  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  after- 
ward Emperor  of  Russia,  offered  Mr.  Owen  large  in- 
ducements to  remove  his  colony  to  the  Russian  Empire. 
Prince  John  Maximilian  of  Austria  spent  some  time  at 
New  Lanark.  Many  foreign  ambassadors  became  guests  of 
Mr.  Owen,  among  them  Baron  Just  of  Saxony,  whose  sov- 
ereign presented  a  gold  medal  to  Robert  Owen  as  a  mark 
of  approval.  An  attempt  was  made  by  disciples  of  Owen 
to  establish  a  similar  settlement  in  London,  but  unfavor- 
able conditions  caused  the  failure  of  the  experiment. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  on  the  30th  of  July,  1824, 
William  Maclure,  a  wealthy  retired  merchant  of  Philadel- 
phia, a  man  destined  to  play  such  a  leading  part  in  Owen^s 
later  educational  experiment  at  New  Harmony,  visited  the 
New  Lanark  schools.  From  this  visit  there  came  a  friend- 
ship between  the  two  men  which  culminated  in  their  asso- 
ciation as  partners  in  the  New  Harmony  venture.  Maclure 
says  of  the  New  Lanark  schools  at  this  time :  "  It  is  really 
astonishing  the  order,  happiness,  and  comfort  that  per- 
vade the  whole.  His  (Owen's)  success  gives  me  much 
pleasure  on  two  accounts :    First,  for  the  good  it  certainly 

232 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

will  produce ;  and,  second,  for  the  encouragement  it  infuses 
into  my  long-projected  plan  of  forming  experimental 
schools,  which,  in  so  superior  a  field  as  the  United  States, 
can  scarce  fail  while  such  an  extensively  profound  and 
beneficial  system  seems  to  flourish  in  spite  of  all  the  oppo- 
sition both  in  church  and  state." 

THE    SCHOOL    AT    NEW    HAKMONY 

In  less  than  a  year  after  William  Maclure  wrote  in  such 
enthusiastic  terms  his  approval  of  the  school  at  New  Lan- 
ark, Eobert  Owen  had  determined  to  abandon  his  social 
and  educational  labors  there  and  found  a  "  New  Moral 
World "  somewhere  on  the  American  continent.  The 
very  Providence  whose  interference  in  human  affairs 
both  men  denied  must  have  brought  about  the  strange 
association  of  Robert  Owen  and  William  Maclure  in  the 
New  Harmony  venture;  for  out  of  it  came  not  only  the 
greatest  experiment  in  social  reconstruction  which  the 
world  has  yet  witnessed,  but  also  the  firm  establishment 
of  Pestalozzian  principles  of  education  in  this  country,  a 
great  impetus  to  the  American  scientific  spirit,  and  a  series 
of  movements  which  largely  affected  American  educational 
development. 

There  was  much  in  common  between  the  two  men — 
more  in  common  between  them  than  there  had  been  be- 
tween Owen  and  the  hero  of  Stanz.  Both  men  were  wealthy 
and  therefore  able  to  put  their  schemes  for  reforming  so- 
ciety to  the  test.  Both  were  philanthropists,  willing  to  give 
their  all  for  social  betterment.  Both  eliminated  religion 
from  their  schemes  of  reform.  Both  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  productive  classes  who,  in  the  language  of  Maclure, 
"make  their  living  in  the  sweat  of  their  brows."  Both 
brought  a  severe  indictment  against  the  existing  social 
order.  The  means  bv  which  the  reformation  of  that  social 
order  should  be  consummated  was  the  one  serious  point  of 

233 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

■difference  between  them.  Owen  seized  upon  every  phase  of 
man's  environment  as  a  weapon  in  his  fight  for  the  uplift- 
ing of  his  fellows.  Interested  as  he  was  in  the  educational 
•experiments  at  New  Harmony,  the  social  Utopia  he  sought 
to  create  there  claimed  the  greater  part  of  his  enthusiasm 
and  attention.  Maclure,  on  the  other  hand,  believed  that 
^'  free,  equal,  and  universal  schools  "  were  the  only  means 
by  which  the  rise  of  the  productive  classes  could  be 
achieved.  Interested  only  in  the  educational  phase  of  the 
'New  Harmony  movement,  he  manifested  little  interest 
and  less  faith  in  the  dreams  which  his  partner  sought  to 
realize. 

Both  believed  in  the  educational  principles  enunciated 
by  Pestalozzi.  Maclure  in  his  Opinions  on  Various  Sub- 
jects, a  publication  of  three  volumes,  printed  and  bound 
in  the  industrial  school  at  New  Harmony,  sets  forth  at 
length  his  reasons  for  approving  of  the  Pestalozzian  sys- 
tem of  instruction.  After  criticizing  the  evils  of  the  social 
order,  he  declares  that  "  to  rectify  as  far  as  education  can 
the  foregoing  evils,  the  system  of  Pestalozzi  through  all  its 
manipulations  is  admirably  calculated.  Having  traveled 
seven  summers  in  Switzerland,  and  some  months  of  each 
residing  at  Pestalozzi's  school  at  Yverdun,  I  never  saw  the 
pupils  in  or  out  of  school  without  one  of  the  teachers  pre- 
siding at  their  games,  etc.,  all  of  which  were  calculated  to 
convey  instruction.  They  were  constantly  occupied  with 
something  useful  to  themselves  or  others  from  5  a.  m.  to 
8  p.  M.,  with  the  exception  of  four  half  hours  at  meals,  at 
which  all  the  teachers  ate  with  the  pupils ;  their  attention 
was  never  fatigued  with  more  than  one  hour  at  the  same 
exercise,  either  moral  or  physical ;  all  was  bottomed  on  free 
will  by  the  total  exclusion  of  every  species  of  correction. 
Their  actions  were  cheerful,  energetic,  and  rapidly  tending 
toward  the  end  aimed  at. 

"  I  do  not  recollect  ever  to  have  heard  a  cry  or  any 
demonstration  of  pain  or  displeasure  nor  even  an  angry 

234 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

word  from  teacher  or  pupil  all  the  time  I  lived  among 
them.  One  of  the  most  beneficial  consequences  is  the  pleas- 
ure all  of  Pestalozzi^s  pupils  take  in  mental  labor  and 
study.  Though  I  often  went  out  of  my  road  fifty  leagues  to 
examine  young  men  taught  under  this  system,  I  do  not  re- 
member ever  finding  one  of  an  ill-natured  temper  or  bad 
conduct  of  all  I  saw  either  in  Europe  or  in  this  country, 
and  I  usually  found  them  greatly  superior  in  all  the  useful 
accomplishments  to  all  those  educated  by  other  methods." 

It  was  in  1805  that  Maclure  first  visited  Pestalozzi's 
school  in  Switzerland,  where,  to  use  the  language  of  Joseph 
Neef,  "he  was  soon  convinced  of  the  solidity,  importance, 
and  usefulness  of  the  Pestalozzian  system.  Indeed,  to  see 
Pestalozzi's  method  displayed  before  his  eyes  and  to  form 
an  unalterable  wish  of  naturalizing  it  in  his  own  country 
were  operations  succeeding  each  other  with  such  rapidity 
that  Maclure  took  them  for  one  and  the  same  operation." 
On  being  asked  by  him  to  recommend  a  disciple  capable  of 
carrying  on  the  work  in  America  successfully,  Pestalozzi 
named  Joseph  ^N'eef.  Maclure  supported  N"eef  for  two 
years  while  he  was  learning  the  English  language,  after 
which  he  established,  on  the  Schuylkill  Eiver,  five  miles 
from  Philadelphia,  with  Neef  as  principal,  the  first  Pes- 
talozzian school  on  the  Western  continent.  After  several 
years  of  indifferent  success  the  school  was  transferred  to 
Delaware  County,  Pennsylvania,  where  in  1814  the  effort 
was  abandoned  because  of  public  prejudice  against  Neef's 
boldly  proclaimed  atheism.  Neef  moved  to  Louisville, 
bought  a  small  farm  near  the  city,  and  renounced  teaching 
altogether.  Erom  this  retreat  he  was  brought  to  New  Har- 
mony by  Owen  and  Maclure  in  1826. 

When  the  partcership  between  Owen  and  Maclure  gave 
the  latter  sole  charge  of  the  educational  efforts  at  New 
Harmony,  he  gathered  together  some  of  the  members  of 
the  teaching  force  of  his  former  school  and  the  scientists 
whom  his  own  distinguished  achievements  had  attracted  to 

235 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

the  venture  and  set  out  with  his  "  Boat-load  of  Knowl- 
edge" down  the  turbid  Ohio.  The  party  arrived  at  The 
New  Moral  World  eight  months  after  Robert  Owen  had 
established  his  colony  there.  Maclure  began  at  once  to 
organize  the  school  system,  which  he  fondly  hoped  would 
become  the  center  of  American  education  through  the  in- 
troduction of  the  Pestalozzian  system  of  instruction.  One 
of  his  first  acts  was  to  publish  a  prospectus,  or  "  course 
of  study/'  for  the  contemplated  schools. 

maclure's  outline,  or  course  of  study,  for  the 
new  harmony  schools 

In  Silliman's  Journal,  early  in  1826,  and  before  the 
organization  of  the  schools  had  been  much  more  than  be- 
gun, Maclure  outlined  the  system  of  instruction  to  be 
pursued,  stating  that  Phiquepal  d'Arusmont,  and  Madame 
Fretageot,  with  Messrs.  Say,  Maclure,  and  other  educators, 
"  are  now  prepared  to  organize  at  New  Harmony  a  board- 
ing-school on  those  principles  which  have  for  some  time 
been  in  operation  at  New  Lanark,  Scotland.' 


jj 


(1)  Great  or  Fundamental  Principle  of  Education 

"  The  great  or  fundamental  principle  is,  never  to  at- 
tempt to  teach  children  what  they  can  not  comprehend,. and 
to  teach  them  in  the  exact  ratio  of  their  understanding 
without  omitting  one  line  in  the  chain  of  ratiocination, 
proceeding  always  from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  from 
the  most  easy  to  the  most  difficult ;  practising  the  most  ex- 
tensive and  accurate  use  of  all  the  senses;  exercising,  im- 
proving, and  perfecting  all  the  mental  and  corporal  facul- 
ties by  quickening  combination;  accelerating  and  carefully 
arranging  comparison ;  judiciously  and  impartially  making 
deductions;  summing  up  the  results  free  from  prejudice, 
and  cautiously  avoiding  the  delusions  of  the  imagination, 
a  constant  source  of  ignorance  and  error." 

236 


THOMAS  SAY 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 


(2)  Mechanism  and  Mathematics 


<{ 


The  children  are  to  learn  mechanism  by  machines  or 
•exact  models  of  them,  arithmetic  by  a  machine  called  the 
arithmometer,  geometry  by  a  machine  called  the  trig- 
nometer,  by  which  the  most  useful  propositions  of  Euclid 
are  reduced  to  the  comprehension  of  a  child  five  or  six  years 
old;  mathematics  by  the  help  of  the  above-mentioned  in- 
struments/' 

(3)  Science 

"  Natural  history  in  all  its  branches  is  learned  by  ex- 
amining the  objects  in  substance  or  accurate  representa- 
tions of  them  in  designs  or  prints;  anatomy  by  skeletons 
and  wax  figures;  geography  by  globes  and  maps — most  of 
the  last  of  their  own  construction;  hygiene,  or  the  preser- 
vation of  health,  by  their  own  experience  and  observation 
of  the  consequences  of  all  natural  functions.  They  learn 
natural  philosophy  by  the  most  improved  and  simple  in- 
struments." 

(Jf.)   Writing  and  Drawing 

'^  They  are  taught  the  elements  of  writing  and  design- 
ing by  the  freedom  of  hand  acquired  by  constant  practise 
in  forming  all  kinds  of  figures  with  a  slate  and  pencil  put 
into  their  hands  when  they  first  enter  the  school,  on  which 
they  draw  lines,  dividing  them  into  equal  parts,  thereby 
obtaining  an  accuracy  of  the  eye  which,  joined  to  the  con- 
stant exercise  of  judging  the  distance  of  objects  and  their 
height,  gives  them  a  perfect  idea  of  space." 


(( 


(5)  Music 

They  learn  music  through  the  medium  of  an  organ 
constructed  for  the  purpose,  and  a  sonometer,  first  learning 
the  sounds  and  then  being  taught  the  notes,  or  signs  of 
those  sounds." 

237 


{( 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 


(6)  Gymnastics 

Gymnastics,  or  the  exercise  of  all  muscular  motions, 
they  acquire  by  the  practise  of  all  kinds  of  movements  al- 
ways, preferably,  those  that  may  lead  to  utility,  such  as 
marching,  climbing,  the  manual  exercise,  etc.  They  are 
taught  the  greatest  part  of  these  branches  at  the  same  time, 
never  fatiguing  the  mind  by  giving  more  than  an  hour's 
attention  to  the  same  thing,  changing  the  subject  and 
rendering  it  a  play  by  variety. 


>} 


« 


(7)  Languages 

The  pupils  learn  as  many  languages  as  there  are  lan- 
guages spoken  by  the  boys  of  different  nations  in  the  school, 
each  instructing  the  other  in  the  vocabulary  of  his  lan- 
guage.'' 

(8)  Manual  Training 

"  Lithographing  and  engraving  as  well  as  printing  are 
to  be  carried  on  in  the  school  building,  as  well  as  other  me- 
chanic arts,  that  the  children  may  receive  manual  training. 
The  boys  learn  at  least  one  mechanical  art — for  instance, 
setting  type  and  printing,  and  for  this  purpose  there  are 
printing-presses  in  each  school  by  the  aid  of  which  are 
published  all  their  elementary  books. 


y> 


In  attempting  to  carry  out  the  course  of  study  an- 
nounced in  Silliman's  Journal  and  outlined  above,  Ma- 
clure  patterned  the  New  Harmony  educational  system 
closely  after  the  successful  system  which  Owen  had  aban- 
doned at  New  Lanark.  He  not  only  adopted  the  same 
educational  principles,  but  also  the  same  school  units  and 
organization.  The  infant  school  at  New  Harmony,  re- 
ceiving children  from  two  to  five  years  of  age,  was  the 
exact  counterpart  of  Owen's  infant  school  at  New  Lanark; 
the  higher  school,  enrolling  those  from  five  to  twelve  years 

238 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

of  age,  was  the  reproduction  of  the  night-school  which. 
Owen  had  conducted  for  the  benefit  of  the  operatives  of 
his  New  Lanark  mills. 

The  schools,  though  established  primarily  for  the  bene-- 
fit  of  the  children  of  the  community,  were  open,  on  pay- 
ment of  tuition,  to  children  from  outside  the  community,, 
and  pupils  came  from  as  far  east  as  Philadelphia  and  New 
York.  The  terms  for  non-resident  children  were:  for 
boarding,  lodging,  washing,  clothing,  medical  attendance, 
medicine,  and  instruction  in  the  various  branches  taught,, 
one  hundred  dollars  per  annum.  Girls  were  received  upon 
the  same  terms  as  boys,  the  course  of  instruction  pre- 
scribed for  them  being  the  same  as  that  laid  down  for  the- 
other  sex.  The  doctrine  of  the  social  system  as  officially 
promulgated  was :  "  It  is  contemplated  in  Mr.  Owen's- 
system,  by  giving  our  female  population  as  good  an  educa- 
tion as  our  males,  to  qualify  them  for  every  situation  in 
life  in  which,  consistently  with  their  organization,  they 
may  be  placed.'' 

To  an  age  which  coeducation  has  conquered,  Owen's, 
declaration  that  the  females  of  New  Harmony  were  to  re- 
ceive as  good  an  education  as  the  males  seems  superfluous,, 
but  in  the  far-off  year  of  1826  the  declaration  attracted 
additional  public  attention  to  the  educational  experiments- 
on  the  Wabash.  While  it  is  true  that  previous  to  the  New 
Harmony  venture  a  few  private  and  endowed  schools  were- 
founded  for  the  express  purpose  of  affording  better  edu- 
cational advantages  for  girls,  yet  it  is  also  true  that  the 
educational  system  at  New  Harmony  was  the  first  public- 
school  system  in  the  United  States  which  offered  the  same- 
opportunities  to  girls  as  it  did  to  boys.  For  though  the 
schools  at  New  Harmony  were  open  to  non-resident  pupils 
upon  the  payment  of  a  tuition  fee  of  one  hundred  dollars 
per  annum,  yet,  so  far  as  the  children  of  the  community 
itself  were  concerned,  they  were  public  schools  in  an  even 
wider  sense  than  that  in  which  we  use  the  term  to-day,  for 

239 


i 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 


in  them  the  children  were  not  only  trained  but  fed,  clothed,  i 

and  sheltered.  I 

At  the  time  of  Maclure's  arrival  at  New  Harmony  there  ] 
were  no  public  schools  in  the  United  States  save  the  town-  j 
ship  schools  of  New  England.  In  these  public  schools  of  ■ 
the  New  England  colonies  some  provision  had  been  made 
for  the  education  of  girls  before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  | 
century,  but  these  provisions  were  meager  and  unsatis-  I 
factory.  The  training  which  they  received  was  given  either  i 
in  short  summer  terms  or  at  the  noon  hours  or  at  other  in-  ', 
tervals  of  the  town  or  boys'  school.  Boone,  in  his  History  i 
of  Education,  says :  "  But  no  such  opportunity  was  offered  j 
girls  to  make  the  most  of  themselves  as  had  been  forced  | 
upon  most  boys  for  a  half-dozen  generations."  Even  in  ; 
most  of  the  private  schools,  where  better  educational  f  acili-  [ 
ties  were  offered  to  girls,  instruction  was  confined  to  wri-  | 
ting,  reading,  spelling,  arithmetic,  and  English  grammar.  [ 
In  the  very  year  in  which  the  New  Harmony  schools  were  , 
inaugurated,  an  attempt  was  made  at  Boston  to  establish  ' 
a  high  school  for  girls.  In  a  year,  however,  it  failed  be- 
cause the  attempt  to  give  an  education  to  both  sexes  in-  i 
volved  too  great  a  drain  upon  the  public  purse.  It  was  i 
not  until  1843  that  Providence  opened  its  high  school  for  j 
boys  and  girls.  It  was  several  years  before  another  com-  | 
munity  took  up  the  interest.  In  1840  the  city  of  Philadel-  i 
phia  established  a  separate  high  school  for  females.  It  was  \ 
not  until  1852  that  Boston  reestablished  the  girls'  high  ' 
school. 

These  are  the  facts  in  the  past  history  of  education  in  ', 

this  country  which  led  Boone  to  say,  "  By  a  kind  of  tra-  j 

ditionary  blindness,  few  among  the  colonial  fathers  saw  ] 

the  contradiction  of  the  most  fundamental  of  their  relig-  i 

ious  and  political  principles  in  disregarding  or  thwarting  ' 

the  intellectual  life  of  their  daughters."    The  educational  j 

experiment  at  New  Harmony  then  was  not  only  far  in  ad-  : 

vance  of  the  other  schools  of  this  country  in  its  methods  of  I 

240  ' 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

government  and  in  its  Pestalozzian  system  of  instruction, 
but  also  in  the  provisions  which  it  made  for  the  proper 
education  of  the  gentler  sex. 

In  Community  House  No.  2  Madame  Neef,  assisted  by 
Madame  Fretageot,  conducted  an  infant  school  of  over  one 
hundred  children.  Mrs.  Neef  was  the  wife  of  Joseph  Neef 
and  the  mother  of  five  of  the  teachers  in  the  higher  school 
of  the  community.  She  was  a  native  of  Wiirtemberg.  Her 
brother  became  a  professor  in  Pestalozzf s  Institute,  and 
she  was  educated  under  the  supervision  of  Mrs.  Pestalozzi. 
Professor  Neef  was  her  French  teacher,  and  just  before  his 
departure  for  America  they  were  married.  The  laws  of 
the  social  system  provided  that  children  should  become  the 
property  of  the  community  at  the  age  of  two  years,  and  it 
was  in  the  infant  school  that  they  were  first  received.  The 
chief  work  of  the  teacher  was  to  direct  the  amusements  of 
the  children,  who  were  taught  various  games,  some  of  them 
instructive,  similar  to  those  employed  in  the  present-day 
kindergarten.  The  training  of  the  school  was  copied  very 
largely  after  that  which  Buchanan  had  given  in  his  crude 
efforts  at  New  Lanark. 

The  higher  school  for  pupils  between  the  ages  of  five 
and  twelve  years  was  taught  by  Joseph  Neef,  as  principal, 
assisted  by  his  four  daughters  and  one  son,  all  of  whom 
had  been  pupils  of  Pestalozzi  and  had  been  brought  to  the 
community  because  of  their  familiarity  with  his  system  of 
instruction.  In  the  palmy  days  of  the  New  Harmony  ex- 
periments the  enrolment  in  this  school  was  between  one 
hundred  and  eighty  and  two  hundred  pupils  of  both  sexes. 
It  was,  strictly  speaking,  the  Pestalozzian  school  of  the 
system.  The  prospectus  published  by  Maclure  in  Silli- 
man's  Journal  constituted  its  course  of  study.  A  portion 
of  the  time  of  the  pupils  of  this  school  was  devoted  to 
some  branch  of  the  work  of  the  industrial  school,  the  two 
schools  constituting  what  we  would  call  to-day  a  manual 
training-school. 

17  241 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

The  school  for  pupils  over  twelve  years  of  age,  called  by 
the  New  Harmony  Gazette  the  "  School  for  Adults/^  had  at 
one  time  an  enrolment  of  eighty.  These  received,  usually 
at  night,  special  training  in  mathematics  and  the  useful 
arts  together  with  lectures  on  chemistry  by  Troost,  drawing 
by  Lesueur,  natural  history  by  Thomas  Say,  and  experi- 
>/  mental  farming  by  M.  Phiquepal  d'Arusmont. 

The  industrial  school  was  the  one  innovation  which 
Maclure  grafted  upon  the  educational  system.  Every 
other  feature,  as  he  himself  acknowledged  in  the  prospectus 
of  the  school,  he  copied,  not  from  his  own  unhappy  effort 
on  the  Schuylkill,  but  from  Owen's  brilliant  success  in 
Scotland.  Maclure  was  one  of  the  earliest  champions  of 
the  idea  of  industrial  education.  He  founded  an  agri- 
cultural school  near  the  city  of  Alicante,  Spain,  on  an 
estate  of  ten  thousand  acres  purchased  for  this  purpose,  but 
an  end  was  put  to  these  plans  by  a  political  revolution 
which  resulted  in  the  confiscation  of  his  property.  New 
Harmony  afforded  another  opportunity  for  an  industrial 
experiment,  which  he  eagerly  seized.  Though  in  his  eccen- 
tric career  Maclure  championed  many  ideas  with  all  the 
vigor  of  his  vehement  nature,  there  was  none  he  espoused 
more  vigorously  than  he  did  the  educational  theories  upon 
which  he  organized  the  manual  labor  work  in  the  schools 
of  The  New  Moral  World.     These  theories  were: 

(1)  There  should  be  free,  equal,  and  universal  schools 
to  which  at  an  early  age  children  should  be  surrendered 
and  in  which  they  should  be  clothed,  fed,  sheltered,  and 
educated  at  the  public  expense. 

(2)  Every  child  of  the  productive  classes  should  be 
taught  a  trade  in  order  that  he  may  be  self-supporting  and 
independent. 

(3)  Properly  managed,  the  labor  of  the  child  at  his 
trade  in  the  industrial  department  should  more  than  pay 
for  his  maintenance  and  entirely  relieve  the  public  from 
the  financial  burden  of  supporting  the  schools. 

242 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

When  the  children  who  were  the  property  of  the  com- 
munity had  arrived  at  the  age  of  five  years  they  passed 
from  the  infant  school  into  the  higher  or  true  Pestalozzian 
school.  While  pursuing  the  work  in  this  school  as  set 
forth  in  Maclure's  Prospectus  or  Course  of  Study,  they,  at 
the  same  time,  were  learning  some  useful  occupation  or 
trade  in  the  industrial  school.  The  child  was  permitted  to 
choose  the  branch  of  industry  in  which  he  wished  to  be 
trained.  Where  he  made  no  choice,  the  management  sought 
to  assign  him  to  one  for  which  he  had  special  aptitude. 
At  night  the  children  did  not  return  to  the  homes  of  their 
parents,  whom  they  saw  but  seldom,  but  slept  in  an  upper 
room  or  loft  above  the  workshop  in  which  their  daily 
manual  task  was  performed.  Every  child  was  expected  to 
learn  at  least  one  occupation  or  trade  well.  When  this  had 
been  done  he  might  receive  permission  to  enter  another 
workshop  and  learn  a  second  industry. 

It  appears  certain  that  at  some  time  or  other  during  the 
life  of  the  industrial  school  at  New  Harmony  each  of  the 
following  'useful  occupations  were  taught:  Taxidermy, 
printing  and  engraving,  drawing,  carpentry,  wheel wright- 
ing,  wood-turning,  blacksmithing,  cabinet-making,  hat- 
making,  shoemaking,  agriculture,  washing,  cooking,  sew- 
ing, housekeeping,  dressmaking,  and  millinery.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  character  of  the  training  in  other  de-* 
partments,  there  is  absolute  proof  that  the  work  of  the 
printing-shop  was  thorough.  Maclure's  Opinions,  a  pub- 
lication in  three  volumes,  was  printed  and  bound  by  the 
pupils  in  it.  The  typographical  work  of  these  books  is  ex- 
cellent, and  after  the  lapse  of  eighty  years  the  binding  is 
in  good  condition. 

We  catch  a  faint  glimpse  of  the  industrial  system  in  the 
diary  of  the  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar,  who  writes  of  his  visit 
to  the  community  schools  in  April,  1826 :  "I  found  Pro- 
fessor Neef  in  the  act  of  leading  the  boys  of  his  school  out 
to  labor.    Military  exercise  formed  a  part  of  the  instruc- 

243 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

tion  of  the  children.  I  saw  the  boys  divided  into  two  ranks 
and  parted  into  detachments,  marching  to  labor.  On  the 
way  they  performed  various  wheelings  and  evolutions.  All 
the  boys  and  girls  have  a  very  healthy  look,  are  cheerful 
and  lively,  and  by  no  means  bashful.  The  boys  labor  in  the 
field  and  garden  and  were  now  occupied  with  new  fencing. 
The  girls  learned  female  employments ;  they  were  as  little 
oppressed  as  the  boys  with  labor  and  teaching ;  these  happy 
and  interesting  little  children  were  much  more  employed 
in  making  their  youth  pass  as  happily  as  possible. 

"  Madame  Neef  showed  me  their  schoolhouse,  in  which 
she  dwelt,  and  in  which  places  for  sleeping  were  arranged 
for  the  boys.  Each  slept  upon  a  cot  frame,  on  a  straw 
bed.  ...  I  went  to  the  quondam  church,  or  work- 
shop for  the  boys  who  are  intended  for  joiners  and  shoe- 
makers. These  boys  sleep  upon  the  floor  above  the  church 
in  cribs,  three  in  a  row,  and  thus  have  their  sleeping-place 
and  place  of  instruction  close  together.  We  saw  also  the 
shops  of  the  shoemakers,  tailors  and  saddlers,  also  the 
smiths,  of  which  six  were  under  one  roof,  and  the  pottery, 
in  which  were  two  rather  large  furnaces.  The  greater  part 
of  the  young  girls  whom  we  chanced  to  meet  at  home  we 
found  employed  in  plaiting  straw  hats.^' 

The  industrial  school  at  'New  Harmony  was  the  second 
to  be  established  in  the  United  States.  There  was  at  this 
time  but  one  other  manual  training-school  in  this  country 
— ^the  Eensselaer  Institute,  which  was  founded  two  years 
previously  (1824).  These  two  pioneer  institutions,  so 
closely  associated  in  point  of  time,  differed  widely  in  cur- 
riculum. "  The  Eensselaer  school  had  for  that  day  ex- 
tensive laboratory  advantages  in  chemistry  and  physics, 
and  taught  the  analysis  of  soils,  fertilizers,  minerals,  and 
animal  and  vegetable  matter,  with  their  applications  to 
agriculture,  domestic  economy,  and  the  arts,  and  as  early 
as  1835  had  a  department  for  instruction  in  engineering 
and  technology."    This  course  appealed  only  to  students  of 

244 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

a  much  greater  age  than  the  children  who  were  taught  in 
the  workshops  of  the  community. 

The  Eensselaer  Institute  was  strictly  a  technical  school, 
while  the  New  Harmony  experiment  was  purely  a  trade- 
school.  In  the  latter  a  trade  is  taught,  in  the  former 
both  the  trade  and  the  technique  of  the  trade  are  taught. 
Though  the  Rensselaer  Institute  was  the  first  industrial 
and  the  first  technical  industrial  school  in  the  United 
States,  Maclure's  attempt  afforded  the  first  purely  trade- 
school.  After  reciting  a  list  of  manual  labor  organizations 
which  followed  in  the  wake  of  these  pioneer  ventures, 
Boone,  in  his  History  of  Education,  says  truly :  "  Though 
many  of  these  efforts  to  promote  industry  in  connection 
with  literary  institutions  failed,  and  most  of  the  schools 
were  closed  or  reorganized  as  academies,  they  served  a 
double  and  worthy  purpose;  the  function  of  intelligent 
labor  was  magnified  and  the  seed  sown  for  a  more  fruitful 
harvest.  For  how  much  of  the  idea  of  technical  education 
in  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts  the  present  is  in- 
debted to  these  institutions  can  not  perhaps  be  determined. 
Enough  is  known  to  suggest  that  the  obligation  must  be 
large." 

But  little  concerning  the  workings  of  the  New  Har- 
mony educational  experiment  can  be  gleaned  from  the 
official  records  of  the  community.  Though  still  in  a  re- 
markable state  of  preservation,  they  are  almost  entirely 
occupied  with  the  endless  bickerings  of  the  social  system. 
The  most  reliable  and  interesting  information  concerning 
the  community  schools  is  to  be  derived  from  the  accounts 
given  by  those  who  in  the  days  of  The  New  Moral  World 
in  the  capacity  of  teacher  or  pupil  or  visitor  came  in  con- 
tact with  them. 

Mrs.  Sarah  Cox  Thrall,  who  died  in  New  Harmony  a 
few  years  ago,  was  a  pupil  in  the  community  schools.  She 
stated  that  in  summer  the  girls  wore  dresses  of  coarse 
linen,  with  a  coarse  plaid  costume  for   Sunday  or  for 

245 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

special  occasions.  In  winter  they  wore  heavy  woolen 
dresses.  At  rising,  a  detail  of  the  girls  was  sent  out  to  do 
the  milking,  and  this  milk,  with  mush  cooked  in  large 
kettles,  constituted  the  essential  part  of  the  morning  meal, 
which  the  children  were  expected  to  finish  in  fifteen  min- 
utes. "  We  had  bread  but  once  a  week — on  Saturdays.  I 
thought  if  I  ever  got  out,  I  would  kill  myself  eating  sugar 
and  cake.  We  marched  in  military  order,  after  breakfast, 
to  Community  House  No.  2.  I  remember  that  there  were 
blackboards  covering  one  side  of  the  schoolroom,  and  that 
we  had  wires,  with  balls  on  them,  by  which  we  learned  to 
count.  We  also  had  singing  exercises  by  which  we  famil- 
iarized ourselves  with  lessons  in  various  branches.  At  din- 
ner we  generally  had  soup,  at  supper  mush  and  milk 
again. 

"  We  went  to  bed  at  sundown  in  little  bunks  suspended 
in  rows  by  cords  from  the  ceiling.  Sometimes  one  of  the 
children  at  the  end  of  the  row  would  swing  back  her 
cradle,  and,  when  it  collided  on  the  return  bound  with  the 
next  bunk,  it  set  the  whole  row  bumping  together.  This 
was  a  favorite  diversion,  and  caused  the  teachers  much 
distress.  At  regular  intervals  we  used  to  be  marched  to  the 
community  apothecary  shop,  where  a  dose  that  tasted  like 
sulphur  was  impartially  dealt  out  to  each  pupil,  just  as 
in  Squeers^  Dotheboys  school.  Children  regularly  in  the 
boarding-school  were  not  allowed  to  see  their  parents,  ex- 
cept at  rare  intervals.  I  saw  my  father  and  mother  twice 
in  two  years.    We  had  a  little  song  we  used  to  sing: 

"  Number  2  pigs  locked  up  in  a  pen, 
When  they  get  out,  it's  now  and  then ; 
When  they  get  out,  they  sneak  about, 
Por  fear  old  Neef  will  find  them  out." 

Eobert  Dale  Owen  also  gives  us  a  picture  of  the  New 
Harmony  schools  in  operation.     "  In  the  educational  de- 

246 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

partment/'  he  writes,  "  we  had  considerable  talent,  mixed 
with  a  good  deal  of  eccentricity.  We  had  a  Frenchman, 
patronized  by  Mr.  Maclure,  a  Phiqnepal  d'Arusmont,  who 
became  afterward  the  husband  of  Frances  Wright,  a  man 
well  informed  on  many  points,  but  withal  a  wrong-headed 
genius,  whose  extravagance,  wilfulness,  and  inordinate  self- 
conceit  destroyed  his  usefulness.  He  had  a  small  school, 
but  it  was  a  failure — he  gained  neither  the  good- will  nor 
the  respect  of  his  pupils. 

"  Another,  of  a  very  different  stamp,  was  Prof.  Joseph 
Neef,  from  Pestalozzi^s  school  in  Switzerland.  Simple, 
straightforward,  and  cordial,  a  proficient  in  niodern  lan- 
guages, a  good  musician,  he  had  brought  with  him  from 
Pestalozzi's  institution  at  Yverdun  an  excellent  mode  of 
teaching.  To  his  earlier  life,  as  an  officer  under  Napoleon, 
was  due  a  blunt,  offhand  manner  and  an  abrupt  style  of 
speech,  enforced  now  and  then  with  an  oath — an  awkward 
habit  for  a  teacher,  which  I  think  he  tried  ineffectually 
to  get  rid  of.  One  day,  when  I  was  within  hearing,  a  boy 
in  his  class  used  profane  language.  '  Youngster,'  said  Neef 
to  him,  ^you  mustn't  swear.  It's  silly,  and  it's  vulgar, 
and  it  means  nothing.  Don't  let  me  hear  you  do  so  again.' 
"  '  But,  Mr.  Neef,'  said  the  boy,  hesitating  and  looking 
half  frightened,  'if — if  it's  vulgar  and  wrong  to  swear, 

why ' 

"  '  Well,  out  with  it.    Never  stop  when  you  want  to  say 
an}i:h;ng ;  that's  another  bad  habit.    You  wished  to  know 

why ' 

"  '  Why  you  swear,  yourself,  Mr.  Neef .' 
"  '  Because  I'm  a  fool !  Don't  you  be  one,  too ! ' 
"  With  all  his  roughness,  the  good  old  man  was  a  gen- 
eral favorite  alike  with  children  and  adults.  Those  whose 
recollections  of  Harmony  extend  back  to  the  '40s  pre- 
serve a  genial  remembrance  of  him,  walking  about  in  the 
sun  of  July  or  August,  in  linen  trousers  and  shirt,  always 
bareheaded,  with  a  grandchild  in  his  arms,  and  humming 

247 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

to  his  infant  charge  some  martial  air  in  a  wonderful  bass 
voice,  which,  it  is  said,  enabled  him  in  his  younger  days, 
when  giving  command  to  a  body  of  troops,  to  be  distinctly 
heard  by  ten  thousand  men/' 

Eobert  Dale  Owen  thus  relates  an  experience  of  his  own 
in  teaching  one  of  the  community  schools :  "  When  I  first 
took  charge  of  the  school,  finding  that  the  teachers  occa- 
sionally employed  corporal  punishment,  I  strictly  forbade 
it.  After  a  time  the  master  of  the  eldest  boys'  class  said 
to  me  one  day :  ^  I  find  it  impossible  to  control  these  un- 
ruly rascals.  They  know  I  am  not  allowed  to  flog  them, 
and  when  I  seek  to  enforce  rules  of  order,  they  defy  me.' 

"  I  sought  to  show  him  how  he  might  manage  them 
without  the  rod,  but  he  persisted.  '  If  you'd  try  it  yourself 
for  a  few  days,  Mr.  Owen,  you'd  find  out  that  I'm  right.' 

" '  Good,'  I  said,  '  I'll  take  them  in  hand  for  a  week 
or  two.' 

"  They  were  a  rough,  boisterous,  lawless  set ;  bright 
enough,  quick  of  observation;  capable  of  learning  when 
they  applied  themselves,  but  accustomed  to  a  free  swing, 
and  impatient  of  discipline,  to  which  they  had  never  been 
subjected.  I  said  to  them  at  the  start :  '  Boys,  I  want  you 
to  learn ;  you'll  be  very  sorry  when  you  come  to  be  men  if 
you  don't.  But  you  can't  learn  anything  worth  knowing 
without  rules  to  go  by.  I  must  have  you  orderly  and 
obedient.  I  won't  require  from  you  anything  unreasonable, 
and  I  don't  intend  to  be  severe  with  you.  But  whatever  I 
tell  you  to  do  is  what  has  to  be  done,  and  shall  be  done, 
sooner  or  later.'  Here  I  observed  on  one  or  two  bold  faces 
a  smile  that  looked  like  incredulity,  but  all  I  added  was: 
'  You'll  save  time  if  you  do  it  at  once.' 

"  My  lessons,  often  oral,  interested  them,  and  things 
went  on  quietly  for  a  few  days.  I  knew  the  crisis  would 
come.  It  did,  in  this  wise.  It  was  May,  the  thermometer 
was  ranging  toward  ninety  degrees,  and  I  resolved  to  take 
the  class  to  bathe  in  the  Wabash,  much  to  their  delight.    I 

248 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

told  them  that  by  the  doctor^s  advice  they  were  to  remain 
in  the  water  fifteen  minutes  only;  that  was  the  rule. 
When  I  called,  *  Time's  up/  they  all  came  out,  somewhat 
reluctantly,  however,  except  one  tall  fellow  named  Ben,  a 
good  swimmer,  who  detained  us  ten  minutes,  notwith- 
standing my  order,  several  times  repeated,  to  come  on 
shore. 

"I  said  nothing  about  it  until  we  returned  to  the 
schoolroom,  then  I  asked  the  class :  '  Do  you  remember  my 
saying  to  you  that  whatever  I  told  you  to  do  had  to  be 
done  sooner  or  later  ? '  They  looked  at  Ben  and  said,  *  Yes/ 
Then  I  went  on.  '  I  am  determined  that  if  I  take  you  to 
bathe  again,  you  shall  stay  in  fifteen  minutes  only.  How 
do  you  think  I  can  best  manage  that  ? '  They  looked  at 
Ben  again,  and  seemed  puzzled,  never,  very  surely,  having 
been  asked  such  a  question  before.  '  Has  no  one  any 
plan  ?  '  I  asked. 

"  At  length  a  youngster  suggested :  '  I  guess  you'd  bet- 
ter thrash  him,  Mr.  Owen.'  '  I  don't  wish  to  do  that,'  I  re- 
plied. '  I  think  it  does  boys  harm.  Besides,  I  never  was 
whipped  myself,  I  never  whipped  anybody,  and  I  know  it 
must  be  a  very  unpleasant  thing  to  do.  Can't  somebody 
think  of  a  better  plan?' 

"  One  of  the  class  suggested :  '  There's  a  closet  in  the 
garret,  with  a  stout  bolt  to  it — ^you  might  shut  him  up  in 
there  till  we  got  back.' 

"  '  That's  better  than  flogging,  but  is  the  closet  dark  ? ' 

" '  Yes.' 

" '  I  think  Ben  would  not  like  to  be  shut  up  in  the 
dark  for  nearly  an  hour.' 

"  *  No,  but  then  we  don't  like  to  be  kept  from  bathing 
just  for  him.' 

"  Then  one  little  fellow,  with  some  hesitation,  put  in  his 
word :  '  Please,  Mr.  Owen,  woiddn't  it  do  to  leave  him  in 
the  playground  ? ' 

"  *  If  I  could  be  sure  that  he  would  stay  there,  but  he 

249 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

might  get  out  and  go  bathing,  and  remain  in  half  an  hour, 
perhaps/ 

"  At  this  point  Ben,  no  longer  able  to  restrain  himself — 
he  had  been  getting  more  and  more  restless,  turning  first 
to  one  speaker,  then  to  another,  as  we  coolly  discussed  the 
case — burst  forth :  ^  Mr.  Owen,  if  you  leave  me  in  the 
playground,  when  they  go  to  bathe  next  time,  I'll  never 
stir  from  it.     I  won't.    You'll  see,  I  won't ! ' 

"  '  Well,  Ben,'  said  I,  ^  I  have  never  known  you  to  tell  a 
falsehood  and  I'll  take  your  word  for  it  this  time.  But 
remember,  if  you  lie  to  me  once,  I  shall  never  be  able  to 
trust  you  again.  We  couldn't  believe  known  liars  if  we 
were  to  try.' 

"  So  the  next  time  we  went  in  bathing,  I  left  Ben  in  the 
playground.  When  we  returned,  he  met  me,  with  eager 
face,  at  the  gate.  '  I  never  left,  even  for  a  minute.  Ask 
them  if  I  have,'  pointing  to  some  boys  at  play. 

"  '  Your  word  is  enough.    I  believe  you.' 

"  Thereafter  Ben  came  out  of  the  water  promptly,  as 
soon  as  time  was  called;  and  when  any  of  his  comrades 
lingered  he  was  the  first  to  chide  them  for  disobeying 
orders. 

"  Once  or  twice  afterward  I  had  to  take  a  somewhat 
similar  stand  (never  against  Ben),  persisting  each  time 
until  I  was  obeyed.  Then,  bethinking  myself  of  my 
Hofwyl  experience,  I  called  in  the  aid  of  military  drill, 
which  the  boys  took  to  very  kindly,  and  when  three  weeks 
had  passed  I  found  that  my  pupils  prided  themselves  in 
being  what,  indeed,  they  were — the  .best  disciplined  and 
most  orderly  and  law-abiding  class  in  school. 

"  So  I  carried  my  point  against  a  degrading  relic  of 
barbarism,  then  countenanced  in  England,  alike  in  army, 
navy,  and  some  of  the  most  accredited  seminaries." 

An  account  of  the  formation  of  the  educational  society 
has  already  been  given.  With  this  Mr.  Maclure  and  his 
associates  allied  themselves,  and  the  educational  interests 

250 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

of  the  various  communities  were  under  its  care.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1826,  William  Maclure  forwarded  to  the  State  Legis- 
lature a  petition  for  the  incorporation  of  the  New  Har- 
mony Educational  Society,  and  a  bill  was  introduced 
stating  that  William  Maclure  "  had  bought,  in  and  adjoin- 
ing ISTew  Harmony,  one  thousand  acres  of  land  with  suit- 
able buildings  erected  thereupon,  devoted  to  the  establish- 
ment of  schools,  and  had  furnished  a  liberal  endowment, 
embracing  many  thousands  of  volumes  of  books,  with  such 
mathematical,  chemical,  and  physical  apparatus  as  is  nec- 
essary to  facilitate  education,  and  is  desirous  to  obtain 
an  act  of  incorporation  to  enable  him  more  fully  to  carry 
out  his  benevolent  designs/^  This  bill  was  rejected  in  the 
State  Senate  by  a  vote  of  fifteen  to  four,  on  account  of  the 
popular  impression  that  atheism  was  promulgated  in  the 
New  Harmony  schools.  The  Gazette,  in  commenting  on 
the  action  of  the  Legislature,  says :  "  We  presume,  from 
their  conduct,  that  they  have  no  confidence  in  our  society 
or  its  intentions.^' 

In  a  discussion  following  the  signing  of  the  articles  of 
partnership  between  the  two  men,  Maclure  assured  Owen 
that  not  only  would  he  guarantee  that  instructors  and 
professors  of  a  superior  type  would  be  enlisted  in  the  pro- 
posed educational  experiments,  but  also  that  by  the  de- 
partmental system  of  instruction  all  the  children  of  the 
schools  would  be  brought  into  contact  with  the  superior 
qualifications  possessed  by  all  these  teachers.  Contrary  to 
this  understanding,  when  the  schools  were  organized  each 
principal  teacher  assumed  entire  charge  of  the  training  of 
a  particular  group  of  children.  During  the  larger  portion 
of  the  life  of  The  New  Moral  World  Maclure  was  traveling 
elsewhere,  leaving  the  New  Harmony  schools  without  any 
leadership  save  that  mildly  exercised  by  Thomas  Say, 
whom  he  had  deputized  to  assume  charge  during  his  ab- 
sence. 

These  things,  together  with  the  failure  of  the  Pestaloz- 

251 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

zian  school  to  achieve  expected  results  and  of  the  industrial 
school  to  be  self-supporting,  caused  Owen,  dissatisfied  with 
the  educational  experiments  of  his  partner,  to  establish  a 
separate  school  system,  independent  of  Mr.  Maclure's, 
under  the  leadership  of  a  Mr.  Dorsey,  a  short-lived  venture 
that  achieved  no  other  result  than  to  inaugurate  a  quarrel 
between  the  two  proprietors  which  culminated  in  legal 
complications. 

Wlien  at  last  Eobert  Owen  saw  the  social  temple  tum- 
bling about  his  head,  with  the  characteristic  blindness  of 
the  enthusiast  who  has  failed  to  achieve  his  golden  dream, 
he  cast  about  for  every  reason  save  the  right  one  to  explain 
the  downfall  of  his  ideal  social  order.  Though  the  real 
cause  of  the  defeat  of  his  plans  at  Xew  Harmony  lay  in 
the  fact  that  he  had  trusted  too  largely  to  that  imperfect 
human  nature  which  if  perfect  would  make  social  reform 
unnecessary  and  even  our  present  social  system  ideal,  Owen 
did  not  hesitate  to  charge  the  defeat  of  his  communistic 
schemes  to  Maclure's  educational  experiment. 

In  his  farewell  address  to  the  people  of  New  Harmony 
made  in  1827,  just  before  the  utter  collapse  of  The  New 
Moral  World,  Owen  said :  "  If  the  schools  had  been  in 
operation  upon  the  very  superior  plan  upon  which  I  had 
been  led  to  expect  they  would  be,  so  as  to  convince  parents 
by  ocular  demonstration  of  the  benefits  which  their  chil- 
dren would  immediately  derive  from  the  system,  it  would 
have  been,  I  think,  practicable,  even  with  such  materials, 
with  the  patience  and  perseverance  which  would  have  been 
applied  to  the  subject,  to  have  succeeded  in  amalgamating 
the  whole  into  a  community. 

"  You  also  know  that  the  chief  difiiculty  at  this  time 
arose  from  the  differences  of  opinion  among  the  professors 
and  teachers  brought  here  by  Mr.  Maclure,  relative  to  the 
education  of  the  children,  and  to  the  consequent  delay  in 
putting  any  of  their  system  into  operation. 

"  Having  been  led  to  entertain  very  high  expectations  of 

252 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

the  abilities  of  these  individuals,  I  looked  to  them  to  es- 
tablish superior  arrangements  for  the  instruction  of  all 
ages,  and  I  was  induced  to  suppose  that  the  population 
would  be  compensated  by  the  unequaled  excellence  of  the 
system  when  put  into  operation ;  and  in  consequence  of  the 
unlimited  confidence  which  I  placed  in  these  individuals 
to  execute  this  most  important  part  of  my  plan,  you  all 
know  how  much  I  have  been  disappointed.  Instead  of 
forming  one  well-digested  arrangement,  in  which  all  the 
children  of  the  community  should  have  the  benefit  of 
the  superior  qualifications  possessed  by  each  professor 
and  instructor,  each  principal  teacher  undertook  the  en- 
tire instruction  of  a  certain  number  of  pupils,  by  which 
arrangement  they  were  prevented  from  associating  with 
other  pupils. 

"  By  this  error  in  the  practise,  the  object  which  I  had 
most  at  heart  could  not  be  attained;  the  children  were 
educated  in  different  habits,  dispositions,  and  feelings, 
when  it  was  my  most  earnest  desire  that  all  the  chil- 
dren should  be  educated  in  similar  habits,  dispositions, 
and  feelings,  and  should  be  brought  up  truly  as  mem- 
bers of  one  large  family,  without  a  single  discordant 
feeling. 

"  It  is  true  that  each  of  the  professors  and  principal 
teachers  possessed  considerable  abilities,  and  acquirements 
in  particular  branches  of  education,  but  the  union  of  the 
best  qualities  and  qualifications  of  several  of  even  the  best 
modern  teachers  is  required  to  form  the  character  of  the 
rising  generation  as  it  ought  to  be  formed,  and  enable 
children  when  they  attain  maturity  to  become  sufficiently 
rational  and  intelligent  to  make  good,  useful  members  of 
the  social  svstem.'' 

Though  the  Educational  Society  perished  in  the  ruins 
of  the  social  order  and  Robert  Owen  retired  broken  in  for- 
tune from  the  Waterloo  of  his  efforts  as  a  social  architect, 
Maclure  remained  in  New  Harmony  and  continued  his 

253 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

educational  experiments.  Almost  pathetic  is  the  story  of 
his  after  efforts  as  an  educational  architect.  In  1827  he 
published  an  announcement  of  "  Maclure^s  Seminary/' 
stating :  "  Young  men  and  women  are  received  without 
any  expense  to  them,  either  for  teaching,  or  food,  lodging 
and  clothing.  Hours,  from  five  in  the  morning  until  eight 
in  the  evening,  divided  as  follows:  The  scholars  rise  at 
five ;  at  half  past  five  each  goes  to  his  occupation ;  at  seven 
the  bell  rings  for  breakfast ;  at  eight  they  return  to  work ; 
at  eleven  their  lessons  begin,  continuing  until  half  past 
two,  including  half  an  hour  for  luncheon;  then  they  re- 
turn to  their  occupation  until  five,  when  a  bell  calls  them 
to  dinner.  Afterward  until  half  past  six  they  exercise 
themselves  in  various  ways ;  then  the  evening  lessons  begin, 
and  last  until  eight.  The  basis  of  the  institution  is  that 
the  scholars  repay  their  expenses  from  the  proceeds  of  their 
seven  hours'  labor,  but  to  effect  this  will  require  several 
years  more." 

On  May  27,  1827,  Mr.  Maclure  announced  "The 
Orphans'  Manual  Training-School."  The  Manual  Train- 
ing-School  had  its  laboratory  in  a  separate  building, 
equipped  "  with  such  requisites  as  are  necessary  for  an 
experimental  course  of  lectures  in  chemistry.  In  another 
building  is  a  small  room  lately  fitted  up  for  containing  the 
philosophic  apparatus,  for  which  it  is  well  adapted.  The 
other  room  of  this  building  has  been  used  for  some  time  as 
the  drawing-school,  but  it  is  to  be  converted  into  a  museum, 
in  which  all  the  natural  productions  of  Harmony  and  the 
surrounding  country  will  be  accumulated,  as  well  as  the 
collection  made  by  Mr.  Maclure  during  his  travels  through 
Europe  and  America."  Mr.  Maclure  also  founded  what  he 
called  "  The  School  of  Industry,"  which  had  for  its  prin- 
cipal motto,  "  Utility  shall  be  the  scale  on  which  we  shall 
endeavor  to  measure  the  value  of  everything."  Under  the 
auspices  of  this  organization  Mr.  Maclure  established,  on 
January  16,  1828,  the  New  Harmony  Disseminator,  "  con- 

254 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL    EXPERIMENT 

taining  hints  to  the  youth  of  the  United  States;  edited, 
printed,  and  published  by  the  pupils  of  the  School  of  In- 
dustry." 

When  one  by  one  his  educational  experiments  in  the 
training  of  children,  in  each  of  which  he  placed  such  high 
hopes,  came  to  naught,  William  Maclure,  still  eager  to  do 
something  for  the  cause  of  education  and  for  the  produc- 
tive classes,  "  who  earn  their  living  in  the  sweat  of  their 
brows,"  directed  his  philanthropy  toward  the  formation  of 
an  educational  society  for  adults  which  he  dubbed  "  The 
Society  for  Manual  Instruction."  Announcing  its  forma- 
tion, the  Disseminator,  in  1828,  explains  that  the  new  so- 
ciety is  really  a  mechanics'  institution ;  that  it  differs  only 
in  name  from  the  mechanics'  institutes  of  the  United 
States  and  Europe,  its  objects  and  means  being  the  same  as 
these ;  and  that  its  objects  are  to  "  communicate  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  arts  and  sciences  to  those  persons  who 
have  hitherto  been  excluded  from  a  scientific  or  general 
education  by  the  erroneous  and  narrow-minded  policy  of 
colleges  and  public  schools,  which  have  invariably  endeav- 
ored to  confine  learning  to  the  rich  few,  so  that  they  might 
tyrannize  over  the  uneducated  many." 

In  1828  Maclure  went  to  Mexico  to  recuperate  his  fail- 
ing health,  leaving  his  financial  and  educational  interests 
under  the  management  of  Thomas  Say.  The  state  of  his 
health  finally  compelled  him  to  take  up  his  permanent  resi- 
dence there.  Within  a  few  years  after  his  departure,  the 
last  School  of  Industry  which  he  established  closed  its 
doors  because  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  financial  support  of 
its  founder.  The  Society  for  Mutual  Instruction  led  a 
more  or  less  insignificant  and  halting  existence  for  several 
years  and  then  "  died  for  want  of  breath."  Strange  to  say, 
after  his  departure  from  New  Harmony  Maclure  seems  to 
have  lost  all  his  former  abundant  interest  and  faith  in  his 
educational  ventures  for  children.  Not  even  in  his  corre- 
spondence with  Thomas  Say  and  Madame  Fretageot  does 

255 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

he  allude  to  his  former  efforts  in  behalf  of  Pestalozzianism 
and  self-supporting  schools. 

Yet  within  a  year  before  his  death  in  a  strange  land,  we 
find  Maclure  still  interested  in  the  productive  classes  at 
New  Harmony,  still  eager  to  do  something  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  children  of  a  larger  growth.  Through  Mr. 
Achilles  E.  Fretageot,  son  of  Madame  Fretageot,  he  in- 
augurated in  1837  a  correspondence  with  the  workingmen 
of  New  Harmony  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a 
Working  Men^s  Institute  and  Library,  which  rose  like 
Phenix  of  old  out  of  the  dormant  ashes  of  the  Society  for 
Mutual  Instruction.  The  gifts  which  he  had  contemplated 
for  this  Working  Men^s  Institute  had  not  been  bestowed  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  They  were  executed  in  part  by 
the  brother  and  sister,  whom  he  named  as  the  executors 
of  his  will. 

This  Working  Men's  Institute,  as  will  be  described  in  a 
subsequent  chapter  upon  the  Maclure  Libraries,  is  in  ex- 
istence to-day,  operates  the  New  Harmony  Library,  was  the 
first  of  the  large  group  of  institutes  and  libraries  which 
Maclure  established  through  the  terms  of  his  will,  and  is 
the  sole  remaining  evidence  of  the  educational  efforts  of 
the  first  American  geologist.  All  the  other  educational 
ventures  perished  as  perished  the  social  order,  leaving  no 
record  of  their  existence  save  that  which  they  have  writ- 
ten by  their  influence  upon  the  educational  methods  and 
svstems  of  the  countrv. 

What  were  the  educational  principles  and  aims  of  the 
New  Harmony  schools  ? 

( 1 )  First  of  all,  as  has  been  stated  repeatedly,  the  Pes- 
talozzian  system  of  instruction  was  followed  even  more  en- 
thusiastically than  at  New  Lanark.  Owen  advocated  this 
system  and  Maclure  was  its  devoted  apostle.  The  pro- 
spectus for  the  schools  written  by  Maclure  was  simply  an 
exposition  of  the  Pestalozzian  method  of  teaching  the  vari- 
ous branches  of  study  treated  in  the  prospectus.     The 

256 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

eleven  postulates  of  the  so-called  Pestalozzian  creed  as 
given  by  Morf  constituted  the  chart  and  compass  of  the 
educational  experiments  on  the  Wabash. 

Morf^s  twelfth  postulate,  advocating  religious  training, 
was  rejected  at  New  Harmony,  as  it  had  been  at  New 
Lanark.  Maclure  was  a  pronounced  atheist  and  opposed 
even  more  bitterly  than  Owen  the  Christian  religion,  which 
he  denounced  as  an  institution  by  the  aid  of  which  the 
non-productive  oppressed  and  held  in  bondage  the  pro- 
ductive classes.  The  peculiar  religious  opinions  of  Owen 
and  Maclure  attracted  to  their  venture,  along  with  the  idle 
and  the  vicious  and  the  adventurous,  men  vehemently  ad- 
Tocating  every  shade  and  phase  of  religious  belief  and  un- 
belief. In  such  an  atmosphere  religious  training  was 
neither  popular  nor  possible.  From  the  columns  of  the 
New  Harmony  Gazette  it  is  apparent  that  the  two  features 
or  phases  of  the  Pestalozzian  system  most  emphasized 
were: 

(a)  The  object  method  of  teaching. 

"  Children  in  course  of  instruction  are  not  perplexed 
with  words  of  the  meaning  of  which  they  have  no  concep- 
tion." Models  or  pictures  of  the  objects  to  be  explained 
are  employed  where  the  object  itself  can  not  be  immediately 
presented  to  the  senses  of  the  child. 
(h)  The  concrete  in  preference  to  the  abstract. 

"  The  whole  of  the  time  at  school  is  devoted  to  demon- 
strable fact,  leaving  all  abstract  studies  until  judgment  is 
matured  by  a  correct  knowledge  of  them  and  an  extensive 
acquaintance  with  the  things  around  them." 

(2)  The  children,  in  the  language  of  the  New  Har- 
mony Gazette,  "were  taught  to  value  virtue  for  its  own 
sake,  without  the  hope  of  artificial  reward  or  fear  of  arti- 
ficial punishment."  The  abolishment  of  all  reward  and 
punishment  save  that  arising  out  of  the  very  nature  of  the 
act  of  the  child  was  the  cardinal  principle  of  the  New  Lan- 
18  257 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

ark  schools  and  the  feature  of  the  work  there  in  which 
Eobert  Owen  took  the  greatest  interest.  When  Eobert 
Dale  Owen,  while  teaching  in  the  community  schools,  con- 
quered Ben  in  the  manner  which  he  describes  on  a  previous 
page  of  this  chapter,  without  the  use  of  the  ferule,  he  was 
but  carrying  out  the  chief  educational  principle  which  his 
distinguished  father  espoused. 

Maclure,  strongly  approving  of  the  system  of  school 
government  exploited  by  the  Owens,  incorporated  it  into 
the  educational  system  of  the  community.  He  was  es- 
pecially vehement  in  his  opposition  to  the  methods  of 
punishment  prevailing  in  contemporary  schools.  In  the 
New  Harmony  Gazette  of  March  21,  1826,  after  stating 
his  objections  to  those  methods  of  punishment  which  pro- 
duce fear,  he  continues :  "  Fear  is  a  sensation  so  humili- 
ating, irksome,  and  disagreeable  to  all  the  feelings  of  our 
species  (as  well  probably  as  to  those  of  all  other  animals), 
that  the  best  disciplined  temper  can  not  prevent  attaching 
hatred  to  the  cause  of  it.  But  of  all  the  manifold  and  de- 
structive effects  that  fear  has  on  the  human  family  none 
is  so  injurious  to  the  well-being  of  society  and  so  totally 
subversive  of  the  true  interest  of  mankind  as  the  fear  of 
the  child  for  the  teacher,  for,  in  addition  to  the  innumer- 
able bad  consequences  inseparable  from  fear  in  any  stage 
of  life,  it  closes  the  mind  against  receiving  instruction 
from  the  only  source  that  is  accessible  to  children,  their 
entire  attention  being  occupied  in  watching  the  symptoms 
of  anger  in  their  teacher  in  order  that  they  may  be  pre- 
pared to  ward  off  the  blow  or  contrive  some  means  of 
escaping  punishment.'^ 

It  is  well  to  remember  here  that  twenty-five  years  be- 
fore "  Nicholas  Nickleby "  exposed  the  brutality  of  the 
English  boarding-schools  and  in  the  very  days  when  the 
birch  rod  lay  like  the  sword  of  Damocles  across  the  desk  of 
every  New  England  schoolmaster,  a  school  system  whose 
only  means  of  government  was  the  love  between  teacher  and 

258 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

pupils,  which,  permeating  every  school,  would  render  cor- 
poral punishment  obsolete,  flourished  in  a  Western  wil- 
derness. 

(3)  More  of  the  aims  and  hopes  of  the  educational  ex- 
periments at  New  Harmony  are  to  be  gathered  from  the 
educational  views  of  the  proprietors  and  teachers  than 
from  what  little  the  schools  accomplished  or  failed  to  ac- 
complish during  their  brief  career.  Some  of  these  will 
be  briefly  set  forth  in  the  paragraphs  which  follow. 

THE    RIGHT    EDUCATION    OF    CHILDREN 

The  ideal  training  which  the  educational  system  of 
the  social  scheme  hoped  ultimately  to  bestow  is  described 
in  an  article,  evidently  written  by  one  of  the  Owens  (either 
Eobert  or  Eobert  Dale,  probably  the  latter),  published  in 
the  ]^ew  Harmony  Gazette,  May  16,  1827,  from  which  the 
following  is  taken: 

'''  The  right  education  of  children — not  that  education 
which  teaches  the  child  but  a  few,  to  him,  unmeaning  words 
and  phrases,  gives  him,  perhaps,  a  knowledge  of  some  of 
the  sciences,  or  even  instructs  him  to  hold  converse  with 
men  of  other  days  in  their  own  languages,  and  makes  hira. 
familiar  with  the  history  of  ancient  nations  and  people — 
yet  too  often  leaves  him  morose,  sullen,  bigoted,  and  deceit- 
ful or  cruel,  passionate,  and  overbearing;  a  prey  to  envy, 
ambition,  pride,  vanity,  and  conceit;  a  being  incapable  of 
enjoying  life  himself  and  equally  a  source  of  misery  to 
others — but  that  education  which  watches  over  the  child 
from  its  most  tender  infancy,  with  a  care  that  knows  no 
intermission;  that  superintends  his  instruction  and  neg- 
lects him  not  in  his  amusements;  that  assists  him  in  his 
difficulties  and  prevents  their  recurrence ;  that  seeks  to  give 
him  such  habits,  feelings,  and  desires  alone  as  experience 
may  prove  to  be  a  source  of  happiness ;  that  leaves  him  not 

259 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

on  his  entrance  into  the  world,  but  ever  endeavors  to  sur- 
round him  through  life  with  circumstances  in  unison  with 
his  previous  habits  and  inclinations  and  thus  to  make  him 
an  intelligent  companion,  a  pleasing  associate,  and  a  happy 
being/' 

Value  of  interest  and  the  means  ly  which  it  may  he  se- 
cured.— Some  of  the  educational  ideas  which  Maclure  sets 
forth  in  the  three  volumes  of  his  Opinions  are  ridicu- 
lous from  the  standpoint  of  the  intelligent  teacher  and  lay- 
man of  to-day.  Some  of  them,  however,  even  the  peda- 
gogue of  the  twentieth  century  would  do  well  to  remember. 
After  making  the  query,  whose  interest  has  been  consulted 
in  all  our  old-school  operations,  Maclure  continues :  "  At- 
tention is  the  only  medium  through  which  instruction 
passes  into  the  mind;  without  it  nothing  makes  a  lasting 
impression  on  any  of  the  mental  faculties.  Can  undivided 
attention  be  secured  by  fear  or  coercion  ?  This  is  a  query 
necessary  to  be  solved,  as  a  principle  upon  which  education 
must  be  bottomed.  Does  not  fear  brutalize  and  paralyze 
all  the  faculties  of  the  mind  ?  Let  any  one  at  a  mature  age 
reflect  on  his  feelings  when  under  the  impression  of  fear 
and  he  will  find  that  neither  his  memory,  judgment,  nor 
any  other  of  his  mental  faculties  were  sound.  Fear  per- 
haps is  the  great  predisposing  cause  of  many  both  moral 
and  physical  diseases. 

"If  fear  has  so  debilitating  an  influence  upon  the 
physical  and  moral  qualities  of  men  hardened  and  strength- 
ened by  practise  and  experience,  how  much  more  must  its 
baleful  influence  pervert  and  deteriorate  the  young  and 
tender  minds  of  children.  In  a  state  of  fear  the  attention 
is  distracted,  and  can  not  act  in  unison  with  the  subject 
taught,  but  is  secured  by  good-will,  arising  out  of  the 
pleasure  and  amusement  children  take  in  exercises  that 
interest  them.  If  so,  and  my  experience  does  not  permit 
me  to  doubt  it,  the  essential  business  and  duty  of  a  teacher 
is  to  find  out  the  inclination  of  his  pupils,  and  teach  them 

260 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

any  and  all  the  useful  lessons  he  may  find  they  study  with 
pleasure." — Maclure's  Opinions,  vol.  i,  page  ^Q. 

Reasons  why  the  useful  arts  should  be  introduced  into 
the  schools. — As  has  been  before  stated,  Maclure  was  a 
thorough-going  believer  in  industrial  education.  After 
condemning  the  pleasures  which  men  derive  from  sports 
involving  the  practise  of  "tormenting  cruelties"  (such  as 
fishing,  shooting,  horse-racing,  and  bull-baiting),  he  con- 
tinues :  "  If  pleasurable  ideas  can  by  habit  and  practise  be 
united  with  such  mortifying  exhibitions  of  human  deprav- 
ity, where  every  result  is  annihilated  the  moment  the  action 
is  finished,  how  much  more  easy  would  it  be  for  teachers 
to  imprint  on  the  tender  minds  of  children  the  union  of 
pleasurable  ideas  with  the  useful  occupation  of  some  me- 
chanical art.  This  would  furnish  the  necessary  muscular 
exercises  so  conducive  to  health,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
the  gratification  would  be  prolonged  by  the  permanent 
benefit  obtained  by  the  utility  of  what  is  produced,  and 
securing  pecuniary  independence  in  being  capable  of  prac- 
tising a  productive  trade  in  case  of  necessity. 

"  The  being  taught  to  make  shoes  or  coats  does  not 
force  the  possessor  of  such  knowledge  to  be  a  shoemaker  or 
tailor,  any  more  than  learning  mensuration  or  navigation 
obliges  one  to  become  a  surveyor  or  sailor.  They  are  all 
acquirements  good  to  "have  in  case  of  necessity,  and  in  no 
state  of  society  is  that  necessity  more  likely  to  occur  than 
in  our  system  founded  on  liberty  and  equality,  where  the 
only  bar  to  the  most  complete  equalization  of  the  whole 
population  is  the  ignorance  of  the  great  producing  classes, 
which,  however,  is  vanishing  rapidly  before  the  increasing 
means  of  obtaining  useful  knowledge;  and  children  ought 
to  be  trained  and  educated  to  suit  the  probable  situation 
which  the  circumstances  of  the  next  age  may  place  them 
in.  Even  at  present,  all  our  farmers  and  manufacturers, 
nine-tenths  of  our  population,  would  be  very  much  bene- 
fited by  possessing  one  or  two  of  the  mechanic  arts,  suit- 

261 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

able  to  their  occupations." — Maclure's  Opinions,  vol.  ii, 
page  147. 

The  value  of  natural  science  as  a  study. — After  discuss- 
ing the  obligation  of  every  parent  to  give  his  children  an 
education,  Maclure  recommends  that  the  pursuit  of  some 
natural  science  be  included  in  the  training  given,  in  these 
words :  "  While  parents  are  giving  their  children  the  use- 
ful knowledge  to  carry  them  respectably  through  life,  they 
ought  not,  on  any  account,  to  neglect  giving  them  an  occu- 
pation or  an  amusement  to  fill  up  their  spare  time,  the 
want  of  which  is  the  cause  of  most  of  the  drinking  and 
debauchery  of  youth.  The  best,  most  useful,  and  cheapest 
pastime  is  the  natural  sciences,  which  can  be  practised  in 
all  countries  and  climates  at  the  least  expense  of  either 
money  or  morals;  the  pursuits  of  which  are  productive  of 
health,  liberality,  and  the  utmost  extension  of  toleration, 
as  there  is  room  enough  for  all,  without  jostling  or  in- 
fringing on  each  other^s  rights  or  property;  they  banish 
envy  and  promote  contentment,  raising  their  votaries  above 
the  silly  squabbles  of  disappointed  ambition  and  teaching 
them  an  accurate  mode  of  examining  the  properties  of  sub- 
stances they  are  interested  in  knowing." — Maclure's  Opin- 
ions, vol.  iii,  page  224. 

'^  The  senses  and  the  imagination  ought  to  he  trained." — 
Maclure  believed  this  with  all  the  radicalism  of  his  strenu- 
ous nature.  His  scientific  pursuits  had  made  him  thor- 
oughly utilitarian.  In  his  eager  search  for  the  accurate 
knowledge  which  only  the  senses  can  yield,  he  had  lost 
sight  forever  of  the  realm  of  the  spirit,  where  faith  reigns 
and  imagination  dwells  a  handmaiden.  Hear  the  argu- 
ment by  which  he  exalts  the  senses  and  eliminates  imag- 
ination from  the  curriculum ! 

"  Nature  has  given  us  our  senses,  through  which  we  re- 
ceive all  our  ideas.  ISTor  can  the  ingenuity  of  men  invent 
the  figure  or  form  of  anything  that  has  not  come  to  them 
"either  entire  or  by  piecemeal  through  the  medium  of  their 

262 


'■fi 

I 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

senses.  .  .  .  Our  senses  being  the  only  medium 
through  which  we  can  receive  our  knowledge  of  matter  or 
motion,  the  only  channel  by  which  we  can  receive  informa- 
tion of  the  qualities  or  properties  of  animated  things,  it 
must  follow  of  course  that  teaching  the  correct  and  rapid 
use  of  all  our  senses  and  avoiding  all  abuse  and  deceptions 
of  them  ought  to  be  the  principal  object  of  education. 

"  The  delusion  of  the  imagination,  being  one  of  the 
greatest  abuses  of  our  sentient  faculties,  ought  to  be  left  at 
a  great  distance  from  all  places  of  instruction.  .  .  . 
Imagination  has  been  so  beaten  up,  mixed,  and  compounded 
with  the  wisdom  of  our  senses,  that  it  is  difficult  to  draw 
the  line  of  separation  between  them ;  but  every  vision  of  the 
mind,  which  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  has  come  to 
us  through  our  senses,  may  be  considered  to  be  the  child 
of  the  imagination,  which  sometimes  produces  pleasure, 
like  an  opiate,  to  end  in  debility  or  disappointment;  but 
most  frequently  it  exaggerates  imaginary  evils,  and,  per- 
haps, nine-tenths  of  the  anxiety,  misery,  and  wretchedness 
of  humanity  are  the  fruits  of  imagination.  It  is  probably 
not  the  natural  state  of  man,  but  the  artificial  state,  engen- 
dered by  the  fallacies  of  education,  and  kept  up  by  the 
rulers  of  the  church  and  state." 

Proper  subjects  to  teach  in  the  school  of  a  free  people. — 
In  his  Opinions,  vol.  i,  page  48,  Maclure  declares  that  edu- 
cation, like  mankind,  may  be  divided  into  two  species,  the 
productive  and  non-productive,  the  useful  and  the  orna- 
mental, the  necessary  and  the  amusing.  The  productive, 
useful,  and  necessary  subjects  in  teaching  are  those  which 
we  acquire  through  the  senses,  such  as  drawing,  chemistry, 
natural  history,  mineralogy,  geology,  botany,  zoology,  arith- 
metic, mechanics,  natural  philosophy,  geography,  and 
astronomy.  The  non-productive  and  ornamental  subjects 
are  those  which  train  the  imagination,  such  as  literature, 
mythology,  etc.  "  It  is  the  productive,  useful,  and  neces- 
sary that  constitute   the   comfort  and  happiness  of  the 

263 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

millions,  and  ought  alone  to  occupy  the  care  and  attention 
of  all  representative  governments,  elected  by  the  majority 
of  the  millions,  who  produce  all  that  is  consumed  under 
the  domination  either  of  public  or  private  revenue.  The 
millions  have  a  right  to  what  they  produce ;  and  all  appro- 
priations out  of  the  public  treasury,  for  teaching  the  non- 
productive knowledge  which  is  merely  ornamental  or 
amusing  to  the  possessor,  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  a 
deviation  from  right  and  justice,  in  expending  the  fruit  of 
the  labor  and  toil  of  the  productive  classes,  to  teach  the 
children  of  the  idle  and  non-productive  how  to  consume 
their  own  time  and  the  public  property  in  learning  to 
amuse  themselves  and  kill  time  agreeably." — Maclure's 
Opinions,  vol.  i,  page  48. 

FREE,    EQUAL,    AND   UNIVERSAL    EDUCATION 

The  persistency  with  which  both  Owen  and  Maclure 
throughout  their  stormy  careers  advocated  the  establish- 
ment of  a  system  of  State  schools,  supported  by  the  public 
purse,  wherein  without  cost  every  child  might  receive  an 
education  equal  to  that  of  his  fellows,  constitutes  their 
greatest  claim  on  public  gratitude.  When  the  social  ex- 
periment opened  its  doors  invitingly  to  the  discontented 
of  the  Eepublic,  there  were  no  public  schools,  in  the 
sense  in  which  we  use  the  term  to-day,  outside  of  New 
England.  "  Public  schools  "  in  the  Middle  and  Southern 
States  were  either  "  free  schools  "  or  "  pauper  schools.''  It 
was  not  until  1871  that  some  sections  of  the  Eastern 
States  ceased  to  charge  a  fee  for  the  fuel  consumed  by  the 
pupil.  In  our  own  time  the  public-school  idea  in  some 
portions  of  the  South  is  compassed  by  the  care  which  it  is 
thought  the  State  should  take  of  the  dependent  and  un- 
fortunate classes.  It  required  the  constitution  of  1852  to 
establish  in  Indiana  the  principle  that  the  property  of  the 
State  should  educate  the  children  of  the  State  and  that  all 

264 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

the  common  schools  should  be  open  to  pupils  without 
charge.  Even  the  township  schools  of  New  England, 
though  bestowing  an  education  that  was  "  free  and  equal/' 
were  not  "  universal,"  for,  basing  their  moral  and  religious 
training  upon  the  narrow  creed  of  the  dominant  sect,  they 
often  alienated  the  support  and  the  patronage  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  other  faiths. 

Yet  in  1825,  nine  years  before  the  first  free  school  sup- 
ported by  taxation  on  Indiana  soil  opened  its  doors,  and  at 
least  half  a  century  in  advance  of  the  prevailing  thought  of 
the  era,  Kobert  Owen  and  William  Maclure  established  upon 
the  very  frontier  of  civilization  an  educational  system  for 
all  where  instruction  could  be  obtained  "without  money 
and  without  price."  Though  the  non-residents  were 
charged  tuition,  to  the  children  of  the  community  the 
schools  were  indeed  and  in  truth  free,  equal,  and  universal ; 
and  it  was  hoped  they  would  become  self-supporting,  for 
it  was  expected  that  their  industrial  training  would  ul- 
timately relieve  The  New  Moral  World  of  the  expense  of 
maintaining  the  educational  system.  Just  as  Owen  held 
up  before  the  eyes  of  the  nations  a  new  social  order,  which, 
convinced  of  its  benefits,  they  were  expected  to  adopt  in 
their  respective  civilizations,  so  Maclure  hoped  through  the 
educational  experiments  within  that  social  order  to  guide 
the  human  race  toward  the  blessings  of  schools  "  free  as  the 
living  waters." 

The  public  utterances  and  writings  of  both  men  are 
replete  with  the  sturdy  assertion  of  the  idea  that  schools 
ought  to  be  "  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  by  the  people." 
After  maintaining  that  public  schools  furnish  the  most 
effective  means  of  shaping  character,  Robert  Owen  declares 
that  "the  national  plan  for  the  formation  of  character 
should  include  all  the  modern  improvements  of  education 
without  regard  to  the  system  of  any  one  individual  and 
should  not  exclude  the  child  of  one  subject  in  the  empire." 
Equally  vehement  is  Maclure,  who  says :     "  One  of  the 

265 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

most  sacred  duties  of  a  free  people,  the  first  time  they 
exercise  the  right  of  universal  suffrage,  is  to  elect  into 
power  none  but  such  as  will  enact  such  laws  as  will  se- 
cure to  all  free,  equal,  universal,  and  general  instruction, 
at  the  expense  of  the  public,  which  is  the  people's  purse. 
Once  secure  an  equality  of  knowledge  by  placing  the  whole 
population  by  free  schools  on  the  same  footing,  the  equal- 
ity of  the  two  other  essentials  of  freedom,  property  and 
power,  must  follow  as  certainly  as  light  and  heat  follow 
the  rays  of  the  sun." 

The  sons  of  Robert  Owen  caught  the  spirit  of  free 
schools  from  their  father.  In  an  address  delivered  at 
I^ew  Harmony  in  1840  Eichard  Owen  said :  "  It  should 
be  our  strenuous  endeavor  to  give  an  education  free  and 
universal  to  the  son  of  the  poorest  farmer  as  to  the  son 
of  the  chief  magistrate.  It  may  require  much  time  and 
patience  to  attain  the  desirable  result,  but  it  should  never 
be  lost  sight  of.  Let  our  first  patriotic  object  at  all  times 
be — equal  and  universal  education." 

Though  a  subsequent  chapter  presents  the  invaluable 
services  which  Eobert  Dale  Owen  rendered  to  the  cause  of 
free  schools  in  the  formative  days  of  the  Indiana  educa- 
tional svstem,  we  can  not  forbear  to  mention  here  his  atti- 
tude  on  the  question  of  equal  and  universal  education. 
Years  after  the  educational  experiments  went  down  in  the 
ruins  of  the  social  order,  Eobert  Dale  Owen  still  breathed 
their  spirit,  when,  through  the  editorial  columns  of  the 
Free  Enquirer,  he  declared :  "  We  desire  to  see  our  public 
schools  so  endowed  and  provided  that  they  shall  be  equally 
desirable  for  all  classes  of  society.  To  effect  this  the  means 
of  instruction  which  are  offered  to  the  poor  should  be  the 
very  best  which  can  be  provided.  This  is  no  mere  fanciful 
theory.  I  object,  therefore,  to  all  exclusive  establishments 
for  education  in  a  republic ;  and  exclusive  every  school  or 
university  is  which  denies  admittance  to  the  son  of  the 
poor  on  account  of  his  father's  poverty.    I  desire  to  see  the 

266 


RICHARD  OWEN. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

living  waters  of  knowledge  bought  without  money  and 
without  price;  for,  so  should  they  be  in  a  commonwealth 
like  this/^ 

Startling  to  the  age  in  which  they  were  proclaimed  as 
were  the  declarations  of  the  founders  of  New  Harmony 
concerning  free  public  schools,  they  were  no  more  so  than 
the  innovations  which  Maclure  read  into  them,  and  by 
which  he  proposed  to  secure  and  perpetuate  them.  To  a 
people  vigorously  debating  the  very  legality  of  "  pauper 
schools,"  he  proposed  and  sought,  through  the  educational 
experiments  at  The  New  Moral  World,  to  demonstrate  the 
wisdom  and  the  feasibility  of  a  Spartan  system  of  educa- 
tion. 

SPARTAN  SYSTEM  OF  EDUCATION 

Like  Pestalozzi,  Maclure  believed  that  in  education  lay 
the  only  hope  of  uplift  for  the  working  classes,  whose  cause 
he  always  championed.  That  this  education  might  be  open 
to  them,  he  contended  for  free,  equal,  and  universal 
schools.  That  such  schools  when  established  might  reach 
the  productive  classes  and  serve  them  most  efficiently,  he 
proposed  that  in  them  all  the  children  of  the  State,  whether 
of  low  or  high  degree,  "  should  be  fed,  clothed,  and  in- 
structed at  the  expense  of  the  people's  purse,  formerly 
called  the  public  treasury."  Not  since  the  days  of  ancient 
Sparta  had  a  system  of  instruction  been  advocated  which 
was  predicated  upon  the  surrender  of  children  of  tender 
years  to  the  absolute  care  and  control  of  the  State.  Under 
the  Spartan  regime,  home  control  did  not  cease  and  that 
of  the  government  begin  until  the  child  had  attained  the 
age  of  seven.  In  Maclure's  system,  the  infant  at  the  age 
of  two  years  must  be  transferred  from  parental  to  State 
care.  The  aim  of  the  system  of  instruction  in  Sparta  was 
bodily  strength  and  agility.  Maclure  sought  for  the  chil- 
dren of  his  care  utility  and  mechanical  skill.  The  original 
Spartan  system  of  instruction  was  designed  to  prepare  the 

267 


THE   NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

male  youth  for  the  pursuit  of  war.  Maclure  hoped  through 
its  revival  to  prepare  both  the  male  and  female  descendants 
of  the  productive  classes  for  industry  and  for  an  "  inde- 
pendence of  the  oppression  which  their  ancestors  had  suf- 
fered from  the  worthless  classes  of  society." 

Maclure  gave  numerous  reasons  for  "  pressing  a  revival 
of  the  ancient  Spartan  school  organization  upon  the  people 
of  North  America." 

(1)  The  children  would  be  divorced  during  their 
formative  years  from  the  handicap  of  ignorant  and  im- 
moral homes. 

(2)  The  productive  classes,  relieved  of  the  burden  of 
maintaining  the  children,  would  be  better  able  to  work  out 
their  own  redemption. 

(3)  The  forcible  removal,  if  necessary,  of  children  to 
the  State  schools  would  defeat  the  indifference  of  parents 
toward  education. 

(4)  By  making  the  surroundings  as  well  as  the  instruc- 
tion of  children  the  same,  a  greater  equality  of  opportunity 
of  all  social  classes  would  be  secured. 

(5)  By  the  grouping  of  the  children  in  large  numbers, 
they  could  be  instructed  and  maintained  for  less  than  the 
cost  under  the  present  arrangement  either  to  the  parents  of 
supporting  them  or  to  the  State  of  educating  them. 

(6)  Only  by  a  system  wherein  the  State  commands  the 
entire  time  of  a  child  can  he  be  properly  taught  a  useful 
trade  that  will  insure  his  industrial  independence  as  a 
citizen. 

(7)  Through  the  useful  trades  and  occupations  taught 
the  pupils,  "  free,  equal,  and  universal  schools  "  could  be 
made  self-supporting,  thus  "  relieving  the  productive 
classes  of  the  burden  of  maintaining  them." 

(8)  Best  of  all,  the  complete  surrender  of  all  children 
to  the  care  of  the  republic  would  settle,  once  and  forever, 
in  the  affirmative  the  question  of  State  responsibility  for 
the  education  of  its  wards. 

268 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

Eobert  Owen  accepted  Maclure's  innovation  because  it 
afforded  an  opportunity  to  transplant  the  offspring  of 
rude,  debased,  often  vicious  homes  into  the  refining  at- 
mosphere of  the  system  of  instruction  which  he  hoped  to 
see  established  at  New  Harmony.  When  he  drew  up  the 
plans  of  organization  for  The  New  Moral  World,  he  pro- 
vided therein  for  the  absolute  surrender  of  all  its  children, 
at  the  age  prescribed  by  his  partner,  to  the  educational 
system.  During  the  brief  life  of  the  new  social  order  no 
feature  of  its  educational  work  was  so  rigidly  enforced  as 
that,  which,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  we  may  term  Ma- 
clure^s  New  Spartan  System.  Eobert  Dale  Owen  became 
a  firm  convert  to  the  idea,  for  many  years  later  he  declared 
through  the  editorial  columns  of  the  Free  Enquirer,  "  I 
hold  it  befitting  a  republic  that  the  State  should  furnish 
throughout  the  land,  at  public  expense.  State  institutions 
where  every  young  citizen  should  be  educated  and  main- 
tained from  youth  to  manhood." 

Self -supporting  Schools 

While  the  educational  experiments  at  New  Harmony 
were  in  progress,  the  people  between  the  Connecticut  and 
the  Wabash  were  opposed  to  the  maintenance  by  public 
taxation  of  free  schools  wherein  the  pupils  received  in- 
struction only.  Maclure's  innovation  added  maintenance 
to  the  burden  of  instruction  which  the  populace  had  al- 
ready refused  to  bear.  In  order  to  secure  the  coveted 
free  training  to  w*hich  the  majority  had  not  yet  granted 
support,  and  fearful  lest  the  burden  of  taxation,  even 
if  shouldered,  might  fall  too  heavily  upon  his  favorite 
"  producing  classes,"  Maclure  revived  Pestalozzi^s  scheme 
for  self-supporting  schools,  and  during  the  educational 
experiments  in  community  days  made  repeated  efforts 
to  demonstrate  their  feasibility.  Though  his  industrial 
schools  fell  as  far  short  of  self-support  as  did  the  less 

269 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

ambitious  effort  of  the  Swiss  schoolmaster  at  Neuhof,  yet 
Maclure,  nothing  daunted,  still  stoutly  contended  that  the 
foremost  reason  for  the  introduction  of  the  useful  arts  into 
the  schools  was  "  the  great  economy  of  enabling  children 
to  feed,  clothe,  and  educate  themselves  by  their  own  exer- 
tions; thus  rendering  them  independent  of  the  labor  of 
others  and  establishing  an  equality  founded  on  each  ad- 
ministering to  his  own  wants  from  the  most  early  age." 

Consolidation  or  Centralizing  of  Schools 

Modern  advocates  of  the  consolidating  or  centralizing 
of  rural  schools  will  be  interested  in  knowing  that  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  ago  William  Maclure  recommended 
for  the  schools  patterned  after  the  ISTew  Harmony  experi- 
ment, which  he  confidently  expected  to  be  established 
throughout  the  land,  the  same  procedure. 

At  a  period  when  educational  affairs  in  the  country 
west  of  the  Appalachians  were  in  a  chaotic  state,  Maclure 
strenuously  and  repeatedly  urged  that  the  newly  formed 
States  adopt  a  civil  township  of  the  New  England  type  as 
the  local  unit  for  the  administration  and  support  of  the 
schools. 

When  these  townships  had  been  so  created  by  process  of 
law,  Maclure  hoped  to  see  erected,  at  the  center  of  each, 
one  of  his  "  Spartan  systems  of  self-supporting  free  public 
schools.'^  With  extreme  care  he  locates  and  describes  the 
schoolhouse.  "  The  locality  must  be  chosen  in  a  healthful 
situation,  removed  from  swamps  or  stagnant  water,  on  or 
near  canals,  great  roads,  or  navigable  rivers,  surrounded  at 
least  by  two  acres  of  land  for  every  child,  as  a  productive 
farm  from  which  they  might  obtain  wherewith  to  feed 
them."  "  Buildings  must  be  erected  expressly  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  school."  "  The  arrangement  and  commodious 
position  of  the  workshops,  houses,  courtyards,  gardens, 
etc.,  are  necessary  to  successful  execution  of  the  plan." 

270 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

.  .  "  Materials  used  in  construction  ought  to  be  solid 
and  durable."  "  Wood  to  be  avoided  because  of  perishable 
quality  and  liability  to  harbor  noxious  insects." 

"  Pise,  a  mixture  of  gravel,  sand,  and  clay,  rammed 
solidly  between  a  shifting  frame,  might  perhaps  fulfil 
all  the  requisites  of  durability,  health,  and  economy  for 
buildings."  ..."  With  a  coat  of  whitewash  it  has 
the  solid  and  handsome  appearance  of  a  stone  building 
and  might  be  roofed  with  tiles  or  slates  that  would  make 
it  fireproof."  "  It  might  be  heated  by  hot  air  or  steam 
by  the  latest  improvements  in  the  construction  of  the 
kitchens."  .  .  .  "  A  parallelogram  or  square  may  be 
thought  the  best  form  for  centralizing  all  the  inhabitants, 
that  the  least  time  might  be  lost  in  changing  place.  A 
courtj^ard  would  occupy  the  center  and  all  around  the 
buildings  would  be  the  gardens,  both  for  the  convenience 
of  culture  and  collecting  the  fruits." 

With  the  characteristic  confidence  of  the  reformer, 
Owen^s  partner  describes  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from 
such  a  plan  of  centralization : 

( 1 )  "  In  a  township  six  miles  square,  the  school  situ- 
ated at  its  center  would  be  only  three  miles  from  its  distant 
parts,  bringing  the  scholastic  operation  within  the  reach  of 
the  inspection  of  all  the  inhabitants  who  are  to  benefit  by 
the  good  management  or  suffer  by  the  bad. 

(2)  "All  being  fed  and  clothed  by  the  establishment, 
the  vicinity  of  parents  is  not  necessary  and  the  schools  may 
collect  the  children  of  a  large  district  to  the  number  of 
some  hundreds,  and  each  would  serve  in  place  of  twenty  or 
thirty  small  district  schools,  when  the  children  eat  and 
sleep  at  home. 

(3)  "  An  immense  saving  would  be  effected  in  time  in 
a  country  so  thinly  peopled  as  the  United  States,  where  the 
greatest  part  of  the  children's  time  is  wasted  in  going  and 
coming  at  least  once  a  day  to  a  school  necessarily  at  a 
considerable  distance. 

271 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

(4)  "  The  grouping  of  the  children  as  to  age,  capa- 
bility, or  aptitude  would  be  facilitated,  which  is  utterly  im- 
possible in  the  present  method  of  small  schools. 

(5)  "  Such  a  centralized  system  of  schools  would  ren- 
der possible  the  employment  of  more  and  better  teachers, 
the  teaching  of  a  wider  range  of  subjects,  and  the  purchase 
of  models,  prints,  and  instruments  incalculably  superior  to 
anything  that  the  parish  schools  can  possibly  afford  to 
buy. 

(6)  "  Best  of  all  under  such  a  system,  free,  equal,  and 
universal  schools  could  be  operated  successfully  at  a  mini- 
mum of  expense,  if  not  entirely  without  expense  to  the 
productive  classes/' 

NEEF's    plan    of    EDUCATION" 

No  discussion  of  the  methods  of  instruction  or  the  prin- 
ciples of  education  which  dominated  the  experiments  at 
New  Harmony  would  be  complete  which  failed  to  set  forth 
at  least  some  of  the  views  of  Joseph  Neef .  Preceding  pages 
of  this  book  have  sketched  briefly  the  career  of  the  man 
who  was  principal  of  both  the  early  schools  founded  for 
the  purpose  of  perpetuating  the  Pestalozzian  system  of  in- 
struction in  this  country.  No  man  since  the  great  Swiss 
schoolmaster  has  possessed  either  a  greater  devotion  to  his 
principles  or  a  more  unselfish  allegiance  to  the  cause  of 
education. 

In  the  introduction  to  his  book,  published  seventeen 
years  before  the  birth  of  Robert  Owen's  Utopia,  and  styled 
a  Sketch  of  a  Plan  of  Education  Suited  to  the  Offspring 
of  a  Free  People,  wherein  the  author  exploits  at  length 
his  peculiar  educational  principles  and  methods,  Neef 
humbly  acknowledges  that  the  training  of  children  and  the 
rearing  of  vegetables  are  the  only  occupations  for  which 
he  feels  any  aptitude.  "  I  have,  therefore,  seriously  in- 
quired in  which  of  these  two  spheres  of  activity  I  should 

272 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

produce  the  greatest  advantage  to  the  society  of  which  I 
am  a  member,  whether  by  clearing  and  tilling  some  se- 
cluded spot  of  land,  or  by  cultivating  the  pretty  bewildered 
field  of  education.  After  mature  examination,  I  became 
fully  convinced  that  in  the  latter  capacity  my  faculties  will 
be  more  likely  to  be  beneficial  to  my  fellow  citizens. 
.  Hear  it,  ye  men  of  the  world !  To  become  an 
obscure,  useful,  country  schoolmaster  is  the  highest  pitch 
of  my  worldty  ambition  ! '' 

The  meaning  of  education.  While  Socrates,  Plato,  and 
many  of  the  profound  thinkers  of  the  Christian  era  had 
uttered  related  truths,  it  remained  for  Pestalozzi  to  define 
education,  as  he  does  many  times  in  different  phraseology, 
to  be  "the  natural  progressive  and  symmetrical  develop- 
ment of  all  the  powers  and  faculties  of  the  human  being." 
When  Joseph  jSTeef,  transplanted  to  the  Western  conti- 
nent by  William  Maclure,  became  the  first  great  American 
apostle  of  Pestalozzianism,  he  brought  with  him,  as  the 
cardinal  tenet  of  his  creed,  the  same  conception  of  the 
meaning  and  purpose  of  education  which  the  author  of  his 
faith  had  proclaimed.  In  an  age  in  which  the  cramming 
system  sat  enthroned  in  the  boasted  New  England  schools 
and  threatened  a  triumphal  march  westward,  i^eef  an- 
nounced to  the  people  of  the  United  States  through  his 
Sketch  that  according  to  his  humble  opinion  "  education 
is  nothing  else  than  the  gradual  unfolding  of  the  faculties 
and  powers  which  Providence  chooses  to  bestow  on  the 
noblest  work  of  this  sublunary  creation,  man.  This  defini- 
tion may  appear  new,  but  I  trust  that  its  newness  will  not 
prevent  its  being  as  solid  and  true  as  just  and  plain.  Cer- 
tainly it  requires  no  superior  degree  of  acuteness  to  dis- 
cover that  Xature  gives  every  human  being  physical,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral  capacity.  The  new-born  infant  contains 
the  ger mines  of  those  faculties  as  the  acorn  comprehends 
the  future  majestic  oak.  Teach  and  accustom  the  young 
mind  to  make  a  just  use  of  these  faculties  and  your  task 

19  273 


THE   NE^V   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

as  an  educator  is  done.  This  unfolding  of  these  powers  is 
the  real  object  of  education,  or,  rather,  education  itself. 
Our  arts  and  sciences,  by  the  means  of  which  that  display 
is  effected,  are  but  accessory  things." 

While  the  definition  of  the  meaning  and  purpose  of 
education  given  by  Pestalozzi  and  Neef  was  too  broad  for 
the  age  to  which  it  was  uttered,  it  has  become  too  narrow 
for  our  own.  Education  has  always  been  a  subject  having 
many  phases.  Successive  reformers  in  its  fields  have  re- 
defined it  in  terms  of  the  phase  which  each  wished  to 
emphasize;  in  terms  of  the  reform  which  each  sought  to 
achieve.  The  scholars  of  the  Eenaissance,  aglow  with  en- 
thusiasm for  the  glory  that  was  Athens  and  the  power 
that  was  Eome,  declared  learning  and  culture  to  be  the 
sole  aim  of  instruction  and  made  education  and  knowledge 
synonymous.  This  view  emphasizes  the  content  of  the 
course  of  study.  Pestalozzi  and  Neef,  attacking  the  system 
of  instruction  in  the  schools  of  the  Humanists,  maintained 
education  "to  be  not  knowledge,  but  the  unfolding  of 
childish  power."  This  view  emphasizes  education  as  a 
process.  It  addresses  itself  to  the  method  of  instruction 
rather  than  to  the  content  of  the  curriculum.  By  it  one 
may  determine  better  how  to  teach  than  what  to  teach  out 
of  the  wealth  of  possible  subjects  that  confront  the  twen- 
tieth-century pedagogue.  These  definitions  of  the  meaning 
of  education,  asserted  by  the  Humanists  and  by  Pestalozzi, 
are,  within  certain  limits  at  least,  phases  of  the  truth.  Yet, 
both  fall  short  of  the  lofty  purpose  which  the  twentieth 
century  is  breathing  into  the  educational  process. 

All  previous  ages,  in  attempting  to  state  the  purpose  of 
the  schools,  have  focused  their  attention  upon  the  child  as 
an  individual.  The  definition  of  education  which  they 
framed  emphasized  the  ego  and  read  into  the  educational 
process  only  an  individual  purpose.  To  the  worshipers  of 
the  New  Birth  the  summum  honum  of  instruction  was  to 
bestow  learning  upon  the  child;  to  Pestalozzi  and  Neef  it 

274 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

was  to  unfold  the  powers  and  faculties  of  the  child^ 
Though  hoth  realized  to  some  extent  that  the  welfare  of  the 
social  order  was  dependent  upon  the  training  of  its  future 
citizens,  both  made  the  interests  of  the  child  the  center 
and  circumference  of  all  educational  effort.  There  is  a 
large  element  of  truth  in  this  view.  All  instruction  must 
be  individualized,  since  it  must  be  comprehended  and 
absorbed,  not  in  social  groups  but  personally  and  indi- 
vidually. Just,  and  only,  in  the  proportion  that  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Eepublic  are  made  individually  better  and  wiser 
will  the  society  which  they  are  to  constitute  become  better 
and  wiser. 

These  latter  days  have  become  more  altruistic  in  stating 
the  mission  of  the  schools.  The  educational  thinkers  of  the 
twentieth  century  have  focused  their  eyes  upon  the  child 
as  a  factor  in  society.  They  see  both  the  child  as  an  in- 
dividual, who  must  be  unfolded;  and  the  social  order  for 
which  he  must  be  fitted,  and  wherein  he  should  play  his 
part  as  a  citizen,  touch  elbows  with  his  fellows,  live  to  their 
fulness  the  measure  of  his  days,  work  out  his  own  in- 
dividual destiny  and  be  a  weapon  for  good  in  the  fight  for 
social  uplift.  From  the  broad  view-point  of  twentieth-cen- 
tury altruism  the  supreme  duty  of  the  schools  is  not  tO' 
perfect  the  ego,  but  to  fit  it  to  play  well  a  part  which 
throughout  life  it  must  play  in  the  struggle  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  race.  By  common  consent  we  are  seeking  to 
rewrite  the  definition  of  education  in  altruistic  phrase,  are 
restating  its  meaning  in  terms  of  life,  and  reading  into 
the  very  web  and  woof  of  the  educational  process  a  great 
social  purpose. 

What  is  the  new  meaning  and  purpose  of  education? 
Many  would  answer,  "preparation  for  life,"  and  many, 
"  training  for  citizenship."  Excellent  as  are  these  replies, 
they  have  grown  so  gray  in  the  service  of  writers  on  edu- 
cational topics  that  they  have  degenerated  into  meaning- 
less catch-phrases. 

275 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler  would  answer,  "  A  gradual  ad- 
justment to  the  spiritual  possessions  of  the  race."  While 
Columbia's  president  would  doubtless  read  and  probably 
has  read  into  his  answer  much,  if  not  all,  that  the  critics 
find  wanting,  nevertheless,  in  its  wording  his  definition 
seems  inadequate  and  one-sided.  The  schools  must  not 
only  bring  the  child  into  an  adjustment  with  his  spiritual 
possessions;  they  must  prepare  him  to  be  a  thinlvcr  and  a 
worker,  who  shall  so  react  upon  those  possessions  that  they 
shall  be  transmitted,  enlarged  and  enriched,  to  posterity. 
Otherwise,  progress  would  be  impossible. 

These,  and  many  other  similar  definitions,  reflect  with 
a  greater  or  less  degree  of  accuracy  the  educational  thought 
of  the  hour.  Language  is  always  more  limited  than 
thought.  Any  attempt  to  state  in  words  the  aim  of  the 
schools  must  necessarily  fall  short  of  the  high  mission 
which  this  altruistic  age  has  assigned  to  them. 

Conceding  these  things  to  be  true,  many  believe  that 
so  far,  at  least,  Paul  Hanus  has  made  the  best  state- 
ment of  the  aim  of  education  when  he  declares  it  to  be 
"  preparation  for  complete  living."  "  To  live  completely  is 
to  be  as  useful  as  possible  and  to  be  happy."  To  be  as  use- 
ful as  possible  one  must  be  a  worker,  striving  with  skill 
and  earnestness.  "  To  be  happy  one  must  enjoy  both  his 
work  and  his  leisure." 

This  description  of  the  educational  process  is  best  be- 
cause it  encompasses  all  that  the  other  definitions  em- 
phasize, and  more.  To  prepare  for  complete  living  is 
certainly  to  inculcate  learning  and  culture,  since  without 
these  life  must  needs  be  narrow  and  fragmentary;  is  cer- 
tainly to  unfold  completely  every  childish  power  and  fac- 
ulty; is  certainly  to  prepare  for  life  in  its  fulness;  is 
certainly  to  train  for  citizenship,  since  one  could  not  live 
completely  who  was  deficient  in  civic  duties ;  is  certainly  to 
hring  the  student  into  adjustment  with  the  spiritual  pos- 
sessions of  the  race,  since  one  could  not  even  begin  to  live 

276 


i 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

completely  until  he  had  been  brought  into  the  ownership 
of  his  scientific,  his  literary,  his  esthetic,  his  institutional, 
and  his  religious  inheritance. 

If  each  generation  be  prepared  to  live  completely,  it 
must  be  a  testator  as  well  as  an  heir,  receiving  from  the 
educational  process  both  the  priceless  inheritance  which  its 
forefathers  have  bequeathed,  and  the  power  to  make  that 
legacy  still  more  priceless  for  generations  yet  to  come. 

School  Republics  for  Self-government  of  Children 

The  last  few  years  have  witnessed  numerous  attempts 
in  the  United  States  to  demonstrate  the  wisdom  and  the 
feasibility  of  managing  schools  through  no  other  authority 
than  that  exercised  by  juvenile  republics  organized  for  the 
purpose  of  training  their  members  in  self-government. 
These  attempts  have  been  heralded  as  distinct  departures 
in  school  management.  Yet,  in  1808,  Joseph  Neef  out- 
lined and  subsequently  attempted,  both  on  the  Schuylkill 
and  on  the  Wabash,  to  execute  successfully  an  elaborate 
plan  for  a  self-governed  school. 

It  was  Neef's  thought  that  the  organization  of  the  re- 
public should  be  preceded  by  a  very  elaborate  course  in 
ethics,  dealing  with  rights  and  duties,  most  of  which  must 
have  been  beyond  the  comprehension  of  the  children.  At 
the  completion  of  this  preliminary  preparation  for  citizen- 
ship, Neef  stepped  before  his  pupils  and  inaugurated  the 
republic  in  this  language: 

"  Hitherto,  my  dear  little  friends — ^hitherto,  my  will 
was  your  law;  it  was  the  supreme  rule  to  which  you  were 
obliged  to  conform  your  actions;  I  was  your  despot;  your 
government  was  despotic.  But  you  have  now  discovered 
the  eternal  laws  of  reason,  which  are  to  be  the  supreme  regu- 
lators of  your  future  behavior ;  that  is,  of  all  your  actions ; 
you  are  capable  of  being  your  own  legislators,  your  own 
governors;  you  are,  therefore,  worthy  of  a  free  govern- 

277 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

ment;  you  are  worthy  to  be  governed  by  your  own  laws, 
or  rather  by  the  dictates  of  universal  reason,  which  the 
Almighty  has  made  a  constituent  part  of  your  nature,  and 
which  you  have  now  discovered;  you  are  no  longer  my 
:subjects,  but  you  are,  and  must  ever  be,  subject  to  your 
duties.  To  be  a  member  of  your  society,  a  citizen  of  your 
little  republic,  is  my  ambition;  it  is  your  business  to  de- 
termine whether,  by  my  preceding  deportment  toward  you, 
I  deserve  to  be  your  fellow  citizen  and  fellow  student." 

The  first  business  in  order  after  the  "  inaugurating 
speech  "  was  the  formation  of  a  constitution  for  the  doubly 
infant  republic.  With  characteristic  enthusiasm  and  con- 
fidence, Neef  describes  the  growth  of  the  written  instru- 
ment of  government  to  which  he  had  assigned  his  "  guber- 
natorial authority." 

"  Do  unto  others  that  which  thou  wouldst  have  done  to 
thee.  This  shall  be  the  first  statute,  or  rather  the  basis  and 
foundation  of  our  constitution.  On  one  side  we  shall  set 
down  our  unalienable  rights,  on  the  other  our  immutable 
duties,  correlative  to  and  resulting  from  our  rights.  All 
our  laws  will  be  nothing  else  but  corollaries  from  and 
further  explanations  of  our  first  and  supreme  law. 

"  Eegulations  of  police  will  soon  be  found  indispensably 
necessary,  and  of  course  they  shall  be  made. 

"  The  first  transgression  of  a  law  or  regulation  will 
-convince  us  that  our  little  republic  wants  a  court  of  justice 
.and  an  executive  power,  and  they  will,  of  course,  be  es- 
tablished; a  penal  code  will  be  wanted,  and  consequently 
Kjreated. 

"  That  punishment  and  trespass  ought  to  be  rigorously 
proportional  will  not  be  liable  to  the  least  doubt ;  and  this 
•exact  proportion  we  shall,  therefore,  strive  to  explore  and 
•to  establish. 

"  If  one  of  us  happens  to  be  accused,  he  shall  enjoy  all 
possible  liberty  to  defend  himself  against  his  accuser ;  and, 
should  his  fellow  citizens  declare  him  to  be  not  guilty,  his 

278 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

accuser  shall  suffer  the  same  punishment  to  which  the 
accused  would  have  been  liable  had  he  been  found  culpable. 
"  In  framing  our  laws,  statutes,  and  regulations  we 
shall  take  peculiar  care  to  make  as  few  as  possible,  and  ex- 
ert all  our  skill  to  remove  from  them  the  least  shade  of 
baneful  equivocation.  All  the  citizens  of  our  republic  shall 
know  and  understand  all  their  own  laws." 

Classical  Education  Unnecessary 

Neef  was  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  utilitarianism  of 
the  New  Harmony  curriculum  and  shared  in  Maclure's 
violent  antipathy  toward  the  learned  languages.  "  It  is 
universally  believed,"  says  Neef ,  in  his  Sketch,  "  or  at  least 
pretended,  that  in  order  to  render  a  boy's  education  liberal, 
learned,  and  classical  he  must  absolutely  learn  that  the 
Athenians  called  a  fox  aXoi-n-q^,  and  the  Komans  vulpes. 
Against  this  sufficiently  ridiculous  belief  I  make  no  great 
opposition,  because  I  care  very  little  about  what  is  called 
a  liberal,  learned,  and  classical  education,  and  because  I  be- 
lieve that  the  education  of  a  rational  man  ought  to  be 
rational,  and  nothing  more.  I  shall  raise  against  me  the 
tremendous  outcry  of  all  our  learned  Hellenists  and  Latin- 
ists ;  I  shall  be  charged  with  barbarism  and  vandalism,  but 
I  can  not  help  starting  the  following  question:  Is  the 
knowledge  of  those  languages  necessary,  and  consequently 
useful?  Is  it  reasonable,  is  it  comformable  to  common 
sense,  to  lose,  nay,  waste,  from  six  to  ten  precious  years  in 
acquiring  those  languages?  Are  the  advantages  flowing 
from  that  knowledge  a  competent  requital  for  the  loss  of 
time  and  of  better  knowledge  that  might  be  acquired  in 
that  time  ? 

"  I  have  maturely  weighed  and  reflected  on  the  matter 
and  my  answer  to  these  questions  is  decidedly  in  the  nega- 
tive. I  can  not  find  the  least  necessity,  nor  consequently 
the  least  utility,  in  learning  those  learned  languages.     I 

279 


THE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

am  wholly  unable  to  discover  any  real  advantage  which 
they  bestow  on  the  learner.  I  conclude,  therefore,  that  it 
is  repugnant  to  common  sense  to  lose  so  many  years  as  is 
usual  in  studying  them." 

Neef  s  radical  opposition  to  the  study  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  tongues  was  an  attack  upon  the  narrow  curriculum 
of  contemporary  schools.  In  them  the  classical  course  con- 
stituted the  one  course  of  study  required  of  all.  The  edu- 
cational experiments  on  the  Wabash  were  a  revolt  against 
the  content  as  well  as  the  method  of  the  prevailing  system 
of  education.  But  in  their  eagerness  to  offer  and  do  full 
justice  to  the  utilities  which  the  New  England  schools  ig- 
nored, Maclure  and  ISTeef  eliminated  the  cultures  from  the 
New  Harmony  course  of  study  and  made  their  boasted  cur- 
riculum as  narrow  as  that  which  it  came  to  conquer. 

Both  the  group  of  educators  in  The  New  Moral  World 
and  their  contemporaries  were  right  and  yet  wrong — right 
in  that  each  emphasized  an  important  phase  of  the  twen- 
tieth-century curriculum,  and  wrong  in  that  each  failed 
to  recognize  the  value  of  that  which  the  other  advocated. 
Few,  if  any  of  us,  will  agree  with  Neef  that  the  so-called 
learned  languages  ought  to  be  entirely  eliminated  from 
the  curriculum.  There  is  still  a  place,  and  that  place  a 
very  important  one,  for  a  classical  education  in  the  affairs 
of  men.  Such  a  training  provides  unsurpassed  mental 
discipline;  is  an  unchallenged  badge  of  scholarship  and 
culture;  leads,  as  no  other  road  can,  to  the  mastery  of 
language,  to  skill  and  distinction  in  oratory  and  literature ; 
and  girds  the  learned  with  the  open  sesame  by  which  the 
inner  life  of  the  ancient  world  is  being  laid,  a  priceless 
treasure,  at  the  feet  of  these  latter  days. 

Manv,  however,  have  come  to  believe  that  differences  in 
taste,  aptitude,  ability,  and  prospective  calling  in  life  make 
the  enforced  pursuit  of  a  classical  course  in  many  cases 
"  unnecessary,  useless,  and  unjust."  Moreover,  many  will 
live  to  see  the  day  when  the  hurdle  of  a  foreign  tongue 

280 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

will  no  longer  be  thrust  across  the  path  of  the  pilgrim  seek- 
ing light ;  when  the  entrance  requirements  of  all  our  schools 
will  be  as  broad  as  the  tastes  and  the  aptitudes  of  the  chil- 
dren of  men;  when  the  fittest  shall  be  all  those  who  have 
even  the  one  talent  which  our  educational  system  may 
enroll  in  the  service  of  the  republic. 


NEW   HARMOXY'S    failures 

What  features  of  the  New  Harmony  schools  were  ob- 
jectionable? What  features  has  the  evolution  of  schools^ 
demonstrated  to  be  either  erroneous  or  impracticable? 

(1)  First  of  all,  though  Maclure  never  completely 
abandoned  the  hope  that  they  might  be  successfully  oper- 
ated at  a  later  day,  the  self-supporting  schools  of  the  new 
social  order  fell  of  their  own  weight.  Neither  then  nor 
since  has  any  type  of  industrial  school  been  self-maintain- 
ing. No  modern  trade-school  attempts  as  did  Maclure's  to 
feed,  clothe,  and  shelter  as  well  as  train  all  its  students. 
Yet,  so  little  has  the  labor  product  aided  in  meeting  the 
expense  budget,  that,  in  most,  if  not  all,  our  technological 
and  trade-schools,  no  pretense  is  made  of  placing  upon  the 
market  the  handiwork  of  the  pupil.  Not  even  in  the  mod- 
ern reformatory,  where  needs  are  the  simplest,  cost  of 
maintenance  the  lowest,  and  the  workmanship  of  the  in- 
mates better  than  that  of  immature  children  can  ever  hope 
to  be,  do  the  receipts  from  either  the  labor  or  the  products 
of  the  institution  lift  from  the  shoulders  of  the  taxpayers, 
of  the  State  more  than  a  small  portion  of  the  burden  of 
maintaining  it.  A  self-supporting  factory  is  a  common- 
place thing.  But  if  it  were  continuously  and  solely  depend- 
ent upon  the  labor  of  an  ever-shifting  body  of  promiscuous 
children,  unskilled,  immature  in  strength  and  experience,, 
as  well  as  years,  and  often  lacking  taste  as  well  as  aptitude 
for  the  work,  then  the  self-supporting  factory,  like  the 

281 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

self-supporting  school,  would  become  an  unattainable 
dream. 

(2)  The  Spartan  system  of  education,  which  Maclure 
hoped  to  revive,  eliminated  the  home  as  a  factor  in  the 
training  of  the  child.  His  scheme,  providing  as  it  did  for 
the  surrender  of  the  infant  to  the  community  as  soon  as 
he  could  be  safely  taken  from  the  arms  of  the  mother 
who  bore  him,  would  rob  the  home  of  its  sociological  and 
educational  importance. 

In  that  little  masterpiece,  Through  Nature  to  God, 
John  Fiske  shows  conclusively :  ( 1 )  That  in  the  enormous 
increase  in  duration  of  infancy,  or  the  period  when  paren- 
tal care  is  needed,  lies  the  fundamental  difference  between 
man  and  any  of  the  higher  mammals,  such  as  dogs,  horses, 
and  apes;  (2)  that  this  prolonged  period  of  infancy  is 
necessary  to  bring  the  child  into  proper  adjustment  with 
his  environment;  (3)  and  that  this  long  period  of  help- 
lessness and  dependence,  by  knitting  the  parents  together 
around  a  common  center  of  interest,  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  the  human  family  and  therefore  at  the  foundation  of 
society  and  of  institutional  life. 

History  demonstrates  it  to  be  equally  true  that  as  civil- 
ization has  become  more  complex  and  life  richer,  deeper, 
and  more  far-reaching,  we  have  extended  further  the 
period  of  infantry  or  tutelage,  "  until  now,  while  the  physi- 
ological period  of  adolescence  is  reached  in  perhaps  four- 
teen or  fifteen  years,  the  educational  period  of  dependence 
is  almost  twice  as  long."  (The  Meaning  of  Education, 
Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  page  12,  Macmillan  Company, 
New  York,  1901.)  This  is  but  saying  in  other  words  that 
the  length  of  the  period  of  infancy  has  kept  step  with  the 
progress  of  the  race  and  that  the  duration  of  parental  care 
furnishes  an  accurate  barometer  of  the  civilization  of  any 
given  epoch. 

Maclure's  proposition  to  transplant  the  weanling  from 
its  mother's  breast  to  a  motherless  school  system  was  a 

282 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

blow  at  the  very  vitals  of  the  institution  of  the  family^  for 
since  it  arose  only  to  care  for  the  child  during  the  years  of 
his  adjustment,  without  him  the  home  has  neither  meaning 
nor  purpose.  Nor  is  it  any  the  less  true  that  the  surrender 
of  the  infant  at  the  tender  age  of  two  years  to  a  hard-and- 
fast  industrial  system  was  a  retrograde  movement,  a  turn- 
ing back  of  the  hands  of  the  clock  of  civilization,  since 
such  a  procedure  practically  abolished  the  all-too-short 
period  of  dependence  and  parental  care  prevailing  in  the 
days  when  Maclure  sought  to  revive  the  custom  of  ancient 
Sparta.  ^ 

It  is  no  answer  to  this  last  criticism  to  argue  that  in 
Maclure's  proposed  regime  the  State  was  to  stand  in  loco 
parentis  to  the  child.  For  that  institution  we  call  the 
government  can  no  more  be  father  and  mother  to  the 
human  offspring  than  the  incubator  can  perform  all  the 
functions  and  duties  of  motherhood.  Both  the  home  and 
the  school  are  necessary  factors  in  the  process  of  adjust- 
ing the  child  to  his  environment.  To  eliminate  either  is 
to  rob  him  of  a  portion  of  his  heritage. 

(3)  Enthusiastic  over  the  evident  efficiency  of  Pes- 
talozzian  methods  and  devices,  the  New  Harmony  group  of 
educators  ascribed  to  them  power  in  the  teaching  of  ab- 
stract conceptions  and  difficult  processes  which  they  did  not 
possess.  The  prospectus  of  the  school  promises  that  "  by 
an  instrument  called  the  trignometer  the  most  useful  prop- 
ositions of  Euclid  are  to  be  reduced  to  the  comprehension 
of  a  child  five  or  six  years  old."  (!)  After  a  very  detailed 
description  of  the  construction  of  Pestalozzi^s  three  arith- 
metical tables,  Neef  cites  triumphantly  a  series  of  prob- 
lems which — though  he  declares  that  with  the  aid  of  the 
tables  they  were  solved  with  ease  and  rapidity  by  children 
nine  years  of  age — are  beyond  the  intelligent  comprehen- 
sion of  any  class  short  of  second-year  algebra  to-day. 
These  instances  are  typical  of  the  confidence  with  which  it 
was  expected  that  the  Pestalozzian  system  of  instruction 

283 


THE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

would  make  every  branch  of  the  scientific  course  of  study 
as  plain  and  easy  to  little  children  as  the  road  to  market. 
The  mistake  lay  not  in  the  system  of  instruction,  but  in 
ascribing  to  that  system  the  impossible.  The  inevitable 
consequence  was  a  curriculum  which  throughout  its  length 
and  breadth  was  beyond  the  capabilities  of  those  for  whom 
its  various  studies  were  intended.  Against  the  New  Har- 
mony course  of  study  the  criticism  may  be  urged,  just  as 
it  has  been  rightfully  urged  against  many  of  the  educa- 
tional practises  of  later  days,  that  "  all  instruction  should 
be  adapted  to  the  capabilities  of  the  learner.  The  impor- 
tant thing  is  not  what  children  can  be  made  to  do,  but  what 
they  ought  to  do  at  their  stage  of  development." 

(4)  The  course  of  study  in  the  schools  of  the  new  social 
order  bestowed  upon  the  child  only  one  of  the  five  spiritual 
inheritances  which  successive  ages  have  transmitted,  en- 
riched and  enlarged,  to  posterity,  and  which  it  is  the  privi- 
lege and  duty  of  the  educational  process  to  bestow. 

These  five  inheritances  to  which  the  child  is  entitled 
are :  (a)  His  scientific  inheritance.  The  child  is  entitled 
to  be  armed  with  the  modern  scientific  method  and  the  re- 
sults of  modern  scientific  research.  Thus  prepared,  he  is 
entitled  to  go  out  into  nature  "  to  love  it,  to  come  to  know 
it,  to  understand  it,"  above  all,  to  commune  with  it  and  to 
master  it. 

(h)  His  literary  inheritance.  This  is  the  richest 
legacy  because  it  is  the  one  to  which,  for  twenty-five  hun- 
dred years,  the  race  has  given  the  most  attention.  The 
child  is  entitled  to  dip  deeply  into  the  storied  lore  of  the 
ages,  for  through  it  will  he  quicken  his  imagination,  enrich 
his  vocabulary,  master  his  own  mother-tongue,  think  the 
thoughts  of  the  prophets,  seers,  and  sages  of  old,  and 
acquire  the  learning  and  culture  which  the  Greeks  best 
describe  by  the  use  of  "  that  fine  old  word  Humanitas." 

(c)  His  esthetical  inheritance.  The  child  is  entitled 
to  be  brought  into  a  feeling  of  appreciation  and  love  for 

284 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

the  beautiful,  the  artistic,  the  picturesque  and  the  sub- 
lime. He  is  entitled  to  the  cultivation  of  that  dormant 
esthetic  sense  which,  whatever  be  his  vocation,  will  lift 
his  thought  and  taste  above  the  sordid  things  of  life  into  the 
realm  where  the  soul  revels  in  the  true  and  the  beautiful ; 
and  transform  him  from  a  hewer  of  wood  and  a  drawer  of 
water  into  a  king  with  a  destiny. 

(d)  His  institutional  inheritance.  The  child  is  en- 
titled to  know  how  the  human  institutions,  which  are  to 
play  such  a  large  part  in  his  life-story,  came  to  be;  to  re- 
ceive a  clear  insight  "  into  his  rights,  which  are  so  easy  to 
teach,  and  into  his  duties,  which  are  so  easy  to  forget " ;  to 
be  brought  into  sympathy  and  harmonious  relationship 
with  the  institutional  life  enveloping  him,  which,  if  he 
understands  it  aright,  will  teach  him  needed  lessons  con- 
cerning the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  citizenship  and 
"  the  necessity  of  cooperation  in  the  working  out  of  high 
ideals." 

(e)  His  religious  inheritance.  Somewhere,  either  in 
the  schoolroom  or  in  the  home,  the- child  is  entitled  to 
know  the  wondrous  story,  freed  from  creed  and  dogma,  by 
which  that  branch  of  the  human  family  to  which  he  belongs 
explains  its  own  origin  and  destiny.  Call  that  story  a 
superstition,  if  you  will,  it  is  the  only  superstition  which 
time  has  strengthened.  Leaving  out  of  consideration  even 
the  acceptance  of  its  truth,  the  child  is  yet  entitled  to  the 
Christian  story,  since  it  is  so  closely  interwoven  with  the 
last  nineteen  centuries  of  racial  progress  that  it  is  abso- 
lutely essential  to  their  interpretation. 

NEW    HAEMONY's    successes 

What  features  of  the  New  Harmony  educational  experi- 
ments merit  our  approval?  Though  in  1826,  Albert  Galla- 
tin, then  ambassador  to  Great  Britain,  declared  "  the  New 
Harmony  system  of  education  to  be  the  best  in  the  world," 

285 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

even  the  special  pleader  in  their  behalf  must  concede  that 
the  early  educational  ventures  on  the  Wabash  (1)  failed 
to  meet  the  expectations  of  Owen  and  Maclure;  (2)  failed 
as  institutions  as  dismally  as  did  those  of  the  social  order ; 
and  (3)  failed  to  influence  the  few  contemporary  schools 
surrounding  them.  The  value  of  the  educational  efforts  in 
The  New  Moral  World  must  be  measured  not  by  what  they 
achieved  in  themselves,  for  they  accomplished  little  and 
perfected  nothing ;  but  rather  by  what  they  attempted — by 
the  precious  seed  which  they  sowed  on  a  frontier  soil;  and 
by  the  results  which  came  from  them  in  after  years — ^by 
the  golden  harvest  into  which  after  many  days  that  seed 
has  ripened. 

(a)  The  precious  seed  sown  ly  the  New  Harmony  educa- 
tional group.  To  describe  this  is  to  enumerate  almost  all 
the  innovations,  to  recapitulate  almost  all  the  educational 
fields  in  which,  both  in  thought  and  practise,  the  reformers 
of  the  new  social  order  were  pioneers.  They  advocated 
and  embodied  into  institutions  educational  ideas  half  a 
century  in  advance  of  contemporary  thought.  To  Owen, 
Maclure,  and  Xeef,  and  to  the  group  of  distinguished  scien- 
tists and  lesser  educational  lights  aiding  and  abetting  them, 
we  must  thankfully  rest  debtor  for  those  priceless  con- 
tributions : 

(1)  The  first  infant  school  established  in  America. 
This  was  in  1826.  It  was  not  until  three  years  later  that 
a  school  for  children  of  tender  years  was  inaugurated  in 
New  York  City — a  school  to  which  Boone  erroneously  gives 
the  credit  of  being  the  first  infant  school  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic — ^an  error  not  surprising,  in  view  of  the  ab- 
sence of  any  published  account  of  the  New  Harmony  edu- 
cational experiment  at  the  time  his  interesting  and  valu- 
able work  was  written. 

(2)  The  first  kindergarten  of  any  type  in  the  Western 
World.  To  the  extent  that  the  play-school  at  New  Har- 
mony, like  Buchanan's  earlier  efforts  at  New  Lanark,  was  a 

286 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

forerunner  of  FroebeFs  more  efficient  organization,  the 
kindergarten  of  the  N^ew  Harmony  schools  preceded  the 
first  kindergarten  of  the  Froebel  type  by  thirty-four  years, 
for  it  was  not  until  1860  that  Miss  Peabody,  "  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  FroebeFs  system,"  opened  in 
Boston  a  school  based  upon  the  kindergarten  idea. 

(3)  The  first  use  of  the  kindergarten  as  a  part  of  the 
public-school  system.  Though  the  Froebel  kindergarten  was 
introduced  in  1860,  its  recognition  and  adoption  by  the 
public-school  systems  of  the  country  was  tardy.  It  was 
not  until  1873  that  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  then  superintendent 
of  the  public  schools  at  St.  Louis,  after  years  of  agitation  of 
the  question,  induced  that  city  to  be  the  first  in  the  United 
States  to  introduce  the  kindergarten  into  its  public  educa- 
tional system. 

(4)  The  first  distinctively  trade-school  and  the  second 
industrial  school  in  point  of  time  inaugurated  in  the 
United  States. 

(5)  The  first  industrial  school  of  any  type  to  he  made  a 
part  of  a  free  puhlic-school  system. 

(6)  The  first  noteworthy  American  attempt  and  the 
second  American  attempt  of  any  character  to  introduce 
and  perpetuate  the  Pestalozzian  system  of  instruction 
which  has  conquered  the  schools  of  this  nation. 

(7)  The  first  public-school  system,  free  or  unfree,  of- 
fering the  same  educational  advantages  to  both  sexes. 

(8)  The  first  free  puhlic-school  system  in  a  land  in  which 
to-day  the  blessings  of  an  education,  "  free  as  the  living 
waters"  (as  Eobert  Dale  Owen  so  earnestly  hoped  that  it 
might  become),  forces  itself  upon  the  American  children,  if 
need  be,  by  due  process  of  law. 

(9)  The  first  real  public-school  system  west  of  the 
Appalachians. 

(10)  The  first  formidable  revolt  ever  made  by  a  public- 
school  system  in  this  country  against  that  so-called  "  lib- 
eral" education,  which,  regardless  of  taste  and  aptitude, 

287 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

ability  and  prospective  calling,  persist  in  thrusting  the 
-classics  down  the  throats  of  all  its  unwilling  victims. 

(11)  The  most  humane  and  enlightened  system  of 
scliool  government  to  be  found  anywhere — for  it  was  not 
equaled  even  by  that  in  the  schools  of  the  tender-hearted 
Pestalozzi  himself. 

(12)  The  most  enthusiastic  and  determined  advocacy 
and  support  of  "  free,  equal,  and  universal  schools  "  that 
history  records. 

(13)  The  most  ambitious  and  pretentious  educational 
experiment  which  the  world  had  yet  witnessed  and,  with 
the  exception  of  Pestalozzi's  earlier  effort,  the  most  cour- 
ageous and  unseltish  educational  experiment  which  the 
world  lias  yet  witnessed. 

(h)  The  results  that  came  from  the  sowing.  Immedi- 
ate results  there  were  none.  It  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  there  would  be.  Owen  and  Maclure  and  the  "  Boat- 
load of  Knowledge ''  were  prophets  and  seers  upon  the 
mountain-top,  their  backs  to  the  wilderness,  their  faces 
turned  toward  a  fleeting  vision  of  the  promised  land.  The 
New  Harmony  educational  experiments  were  half  a  cen- 
tury in  advance  of  their  times.  The  educational  principles 
and  practises  of  that  all-too-brief  golden  age  on  the  Wabash 
did  not  lie  within  the  comprehension  of  either  the  frontier 
pedagogue  or  the  New  England  schoolmaster.  Both  fol- 
lowed blindly  and  implicitly  in  the  footsteps  of  Master 
•Cheever.  The  prejudice  with  which  the  sturdy  pioneer 
from  New  England  viewed  the  social  and  religious  ideas 
of  the  Commune  extended  to  its  educational  svstem  and  all 
pertaining  to  it.  Schools  were  few  and  far  between, 
poorly  equipped  and  poorly  attended,  uncertain  in  dura- 
tion and  taught  by  poorly  paid,  poorly  prepared  back- 
woodsmen or  roving  adventurers  from  the  East.  The 
TOugh  frontiersmen,  engaged  in  a  life-and-death  struggle 
with  the  forces  of  the  wilderness,  had  little  time  and 
less   thought    for    the   affairs    of   the   schoolroom.      The 

2^S 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

few  who,  in  that  age  of  slow  eommurdcatioii  between 
widely  scattered  settlements,  had  heard  the  story  of  the 
educational  ventures  at  New  Harmony  associated  them 
with  the  "  other  social  vagaries  "  by  which  the  new  social 
order  astonished,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  amused  the 
practical  pioneers  of  the  Western  country.  When  the  last, 
lingering  school  of  the  Commune  closed  its  door  it  was 
apparent,  even  to  an  unprejudiced  observer,  that,  meas- 
ured by  the  immediate  eSect  upon  contemporary  education, 
the  New  Harmony  group  of  educators  had  labored  and 
given  of  their  substance  entirely  in  vain. 

But  one  "  can  not  see,  ^neath  winter's  field  of  snow,  the 
silent  harvest  of  the  future  grow.''  If  Owen  and  Maclure, 
standing  on  the  ruins  of  their  golden  dream  for  the  better- 
ment of  their  fellows  and  vouchsafed  one  clear  vision  into 
the  future,  could  have  seen  the  seed  seemingly  fallen  among 
thorns  and  on  stony  ground  grow,  as  it  did  grow,  into  a 
golden  harvest  of  methods  and  measures  and  institutions 
for  the  educational  betterment  of  men,  they  would  have 
exclaimed  in  imison,  "  It  is  well."  For,  measured  by  its 
after-effect,  the  educational  experiment  at  New  Harmony 
deserves  to  rank  among  the  most  important  educational 
movements  in  this  countrv. 

A  subsequent  chapter  tells,  in  detail,  the  story  of  the 
chain  of  public  libraries,  modeled  after  the  Society  for 
Mutual  Instruction  of  community  days,  which  Maclure 
by  the  generous  provisions  of  his  will,  established  in  one 
hundred  and  sixty  frontier  settlements  of  the  West. 
Given  at  a  time  when  there  were  few  private  and  no 
public  libraries,  it  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  im- 
petus which  this  wise  benefaction  gave  to  intellectual  de- 
velopment in  every  one  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty 
communities  which  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  Maclure's  lib- 
erality. 

Subsequent  pages  describe  the  attainment  and  distin- 
guished services  of  the  noted  group  of  scientists  who^ 
20  389 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

drawn  to  The  N'ew  Moral  World  originally  by  the  first 
American  geologist,  made  the  scene  of  Maclure's  disas- 
trous educational  efforts  a  rendezvous  and  Mecca  of  scien- 
tists for  many  years.  By  their  labors  New  Harmony 
became  not  only  the  first  important  scientific  outpost  in 
the  West,  but  also  the  strongest  scientific  center  in  America. 

The  closing  chapter  of  this  book  deals  with  the  life 
and  distinguished  services  of  Eobert  Dale  Owen.  He 
was  the  very  incarnation  of  the  spirit  of  the  founders 
of  the  new  social  order.  In  him  both  his  father  and 
William  Maclure  lived  again,  for  his  act  was  their  act, 
made  more  effective  by  his  talent.  Whether  as  editor 
of  the  Free  Enquirer  or  law-maker,  we  find  him  always 
the  earnest,  effective  champion  of  "  free,  equal,  and  uni- 
versal schools,"  and  of  wise  measures  for  their  better- 
ment. As  a  member  of  the  National  Congress,  he  became 
the  legislative  father  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  As 
a  member  of  the  legislature  of  the  very  State  from  which 
his  distinguished  father  had  withdrawn  in  chagrin  over 
the  failure  of  his  educational,  as  well  as  his  social  schemes, 
Eobert  Owen,  filled  with  the  ancient  enthusiasm  of  his 
house  for  popular  education,  formulated  and  brought  to 
a  successful  passage  the  school-law  whose  enactment  marks 
the  natal  day  of  the  Indiana  educational  system.  Eobert 
Dale  Owen  was  truly  the  legislative  father  of  the  Indiana 
common-school  system.  Through  the  wise  legislation  for 
which  he  must  be  credited,  most  of  the  educational  prin- 
ciples and  plans  for  the  organization  of  common  schools 
which  the  New  Harmony  group  of  reformers  advocated, 
triumphed  throughout  the  Middle  West. 

Though  denied  immediate  consideration  by  contempo- 
rary schools,  the  educational  doctrines  of  the  New  Har- 
mony group  found  entrance  to  them  in  other  ways.  Neef's 
Plan  and  Method  of  Education  and  his  Methods  of 
Teaching,  both  published  almost  a  generation  before 
HalPs  Lectures  on  School  Keeping  and  Page's  Theory 

290 


I 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

and  Practise  of  Teaching,  were  among  the  first  peda- 
gogical treatises  in  America.  The  New  Harmony  ex- 
periments gave  these  two  books  for  the  first  time  the 
recognition  and  prestige  which  made  them  one  of  the 
authorities  in  school  management  and  methods  throughout 
the  country  west  of  the  AUeghanies  for  fully  a  quarter  of 
a  century  after  the  collapse  of  the  educational  ventures  of 
The  New  Moral  World.  Through  the  writings  of  his  first 
American  disciple  Pestalozzi  influenced  the  pioneer  teach- 
ers on  the  frontier  of  civilization. 

During  their  brief  career  the  New  Harmony  educa- 
tional experiments  afforded  the  first  training-school  for 
teachers  in  all  the  West.  Boone  says  that  "  the  Pestaloz- 
zian  theory  found  admirable  exposition  in  the  community 
school  for  both  young  men  and  young  women,  to  whom  it 
was  more  than  a  model  school  in  their  later  teaching;  it 
was  at  once  an  inspiration  and  a  liberal  training.^^  When 
Owen^s  social  system  dissipated  into  thin  air,  there  went 
forth  from  brief  homes  on  the  Wabash  men  and  women 
who,  scattering  in  every  direction  through  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  valleys,  and  becoming  the  instructors  of  the 
pioneer  youth,  sowed  in  almost  every  isolated  hamlet  the 
tenets  of  the  educational  creed  which  Pestalozzi  and  Neef 
and  Maclure  had  espoused. 

The  eminent  scientists  who  made  New  Harmony  a 
rendezvous  were  themselves  bearers  of  good  seed  and  glad 
tidings.  Their  achievements  and  contributions  drew  re- 
newed attention  to  the  best  features  of  the  educational 
"  light  that  had  failed.^'  Most  of  them,  enthusiastic  be- 
lievers in  the  methods  and  aims  of  the  New  Harmony 
group,  carried  with  them  on  their  scientific  explorations  to 
every  remote  spot  the  new  educational  faith.  Climbing 
to  eminence  in  every  Western  State  as  surveyors  and  geolo- 
gists and  university  instructors,  their  advocacy  of  the  free 
public  school  and  the  Pestalozzian  system  of  instruction 
commanded  the  attention  which  their  distinguished  attain- 

291 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

ments  merited.  They  secured,  after  many  days,  the  tardy 
recognition  for  which  the  New  Harmony  group  of  educa- 
tors had  asked,  and  asked  in  vain. 

When  the  social  system  went  to  pieces,  hundreds  of 
its  most  enthusiastic  devotees  turned  their  backs  upon  the 
scene  of  the  great  disappointment  and  sought  permanent 
homes  elsewhere.  Some  returned  to  the  country  east  of  the 
Appalachians,  while  a  greater  number  scattered  themselves 
through  the  promising  hamlets  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 
valleys.  All  carried  to  the  new  habitation  an  enthusiastic 
support  of  the  free  public  school  and  the  Pestalozzian 
creed.  Who  can  estimate  the  influence  which  they  have 
exerted  in  molding  the  spirit,  the  method,  and  the  organ- 
ization of  the  public-school  systems  both  north  and  south 
of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line? 

The  second  distinctive  Pestalozzian  movement  in  this 
country  invaded  the  conservative  atmosphere  of  staid  New 
England.  It  numbered  in  the  list  of  its  enthusiastic  cham- 
pions such  men  as  Horace  Mann  and  Barnas  Sears  and 
George  Boutwell  and  Lowell  Mason  and  Agassiz  and  David 
Page  and  E.  A.  Sheldon,  and  a  host  of  others  almost  as 
illustrious.  No  more  distinguished  group  of  educators  has 
blessed  any  epoch  in  our  career  as  a  nation.  Their  achieve- 
ments constitute  one  of  the  brightest  pages  in  our  educa- 
tional history.  Combining  with  the  enthusiasm  that  char- 
acterized the  New  Harmony  group  the  conservatism  and 
intellectual  balance  necessary  to  permanent  reform,  they 
gave  the  Pestalozzian  faith  a  firm  foothold  on  American 
soil,  wrote  its  spirit  into  wise  laws  and  enduring  institu- 
tions, and  sent  it  westward  to  complete  the  work  that  New 
Harmony  had  inaugurated.  Whence  came  the  first  in- 
spiration of  this  second  Pestalozzian  group?  From  the 
East  or  from  the  West,  or  f rofti  both  ?  Who  can  answer 
with  safety?  Would  it  not  be  pardonable,  at  least,  if  the 
teachers  of  the  Middle  West  should  elect  to  believe  that  the 
traditions  and  the  influence  of  the  New  Harmony  experi- 

298 


TEE   EDUCATIONAL   EXPERIMENT 

ments,  working  silently  through  the  years,  played  at  least 
a  small  part  in  the  awakening  of  New  England  and  served 
in  some  slight  degree  to  turn  the  minds  and  hearts  of  its 
educational  thinkers  in  expectant  faith  to  the  teachings 
of  the  master  of  Burgdorf  ? 

Most  of  the  educational  doctrines  of  the  New  Harmony 
group  of  educators  have  triumphed  and  a  national  free 
public-school  system,  for  which  they  so  strenuously  con- 
tended, more  far-reaching  and  eflBcient  than  pictured  in 
their  fondest  dream,  is  consummating  that  very  equality  of 
opportunity  among  the  classes  which  the  social  experiments 
of  The  New  Moral  World  sought  to  achieve.  Eobert  Owen 
and  William  Maclure  did  not  fail,  for  in  the  fulness  of 
time  they  have  come  into  their  own. 


293 


CHAPTER   XXI* 

JOSIAH   WARREN' 

"A  remarkable  American,  Josiah  Warren, " 

— John  Stuart  Mill. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  characters  attracted  to 
New  Harmony  in  community  days  was  Josiah  Warren, 
equally  notable  as  an  inventive  genius,  a  social  philosopher, 
and  a  peaceful  revolutionist.  He  was  born  in  Boston  in 
1798,  of  historically  famous  Puritan  stock.  Of  his  parents 
and  early  life  but  little  is  known.  At  an  early  age  he 
displayed  musical  talents,  and,  with  his  brother  George, 
played  professionally  in  local  bands.  At  the  age  of  twenty 
he  married,  and  soon  after  set  out  from  his  native  place 
to  improve  his  fortunes  in  the  West.  He  settled  in  Cincin- 
nati, and  gained  an  honorable  repute  as  an  orchestra  leader; 
but  he  had  other  interests  besides  music.  Mechanical  pur- 
suits occupied  his  leisure  hours,  the  earliest  fruit  of  which 
was  the  invention  of  a  lamp,  patented  in  1823,  which  sub- 
stituted lard  for  tallow  as  fuel,  giving  a  better  light  at  a 
lower  cost.  Its  success  was  such  that  the  inventor  before 
long  was  running  a  lamp  manufactory  in  Cincinnati. 

More  pressing  problems  than  those  of  illumination 
were,  however,  shortly  to  arise  and  absorb  the  active  mind 
and  generous  heart  of  the  ingenious  young  New  Englander. 
There  came  to  Cincinnati  in  1824  a  visitor  whose  reputa- 

*  This  chapter  is  the  contribution  of  Mr.  William  Bailie,  of  Boston, 
who  has  made  a  searching  study  of  the  life  and  services  of  Josiah 
Warren,  and  is  the  best  informed  authority  on  the  philosophy  of  that 
remarkable  man. 

294 


JOSIAH  WARREN, 


JOSIAH    WARREN 

tion  as  the  boldest  and  most  successful  social  reformer  of 
the  age  was  world-wide.  When  Eobert  Owen,  with  a 
fervor  of  conviction  and  inspiring  enthusiasm  which  have 
never  been  surpassed,  unfolded  his  plans  for  the  inaugura- 
tion of  The  iN'ew  Moral  World,  Warren  was  so  much  im- 
pressed that  he  decided  to  join  the  grand  experiment  which 
was  about  to  begin  at  New  Harmony.  So,  after  disposing 
of  his  lamp  factory,  Warren,  with  his  young  family,  joined 
Owen  and  his  enthusiasts  on  the  Eappite  property,  hoping 
to  assist  in  founding  the  ideal  community  which  was  to 
usher  in  a  millennium  of  peace  and  plenty,  brotherhood 
and  happiness,  ultimately  to  embrace  all  mankind. 

Here  Warren  found  a  field  in  which  to  study  the  prob- 
lems of  government,  property,  and  industry,  together  with 
the  relation  of  the  individual  to  society,  such  as  never  be- 
fore was  given  to  man.  During  two  stormy  years  of  vicis- 
situdes, disappointments,  and  failure  Warren  remained 
with  the  community,  and  bore  his  share  of  the  burdens 
incident  to  so  pretentious  an  undertaking.  And  when  he 
finally  departed  it  was  not,  like  so  many  others,  as  an 
embittered  reactionary,  but  as  an  earnest,  hopeful  student 
who  had  spent  his  time  to  good  purpose.  As  one  who  had 
with  painful  solicitude  witnessed  the  inadequacy  of  com- 
munism to  correct  the  evils  of  property;  and  the  failure 
of  paternal  authority,  as  well  as  of  majority  rule,  to  solve 
the  problems  of  government,  he  had  learned  an  invaluable 
lesson,  and  stored  up  pregnant  experience  for  use  in  future 
efforts  to  grapple  with  the  same  vital  issues.  With  Warren 
the  failure  of  communism  was  simply  a  reason  for  trying 
another  plan  of  attack  upon  the  existing  institutions  of 
society.  Like  Owen,  he  never  doubted  that  the  ^'  emancipa- 
tion of  man  "  was  possible,  and  human  happiness  only  a 
question  of  suitable  social  adjustment  and  the  application 
of  what  he  deemed  to  be  right  principles. 

Chief  among  the  causes  which,  in  Warren's  mind,  led 
to  disaster  at  New  Harmony,  were  the  suppression  of  in- 

295 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

dividuality,  the  lack  of  initiative,  and  the  absence  of  per- 
sonal responsibility.  When  everything  was  decided  by 
authority,  or  by  the  will  of  the  majority,  each  was  prone 
to  ascribe  the  faults  of  the  system  to  the  shortcomings  of 
his  neighbors.  These  defects  Warren  believed  to  be  in- 
separable from  any  social  scheme  based  upon  government 
and  community  of  goods.  Even  under  the  most  favorable 
conditions  failure  would  in  the  long  run  be  assured.  He 
concluded,  therefore,  that  the  basis  of  all  future  reform 
must  be  complete  individual  liberty.  Every  one  should  be 
free  to  dispose  of  his  person,  his  property,  his  time,  and 
his  reputation  as  he  pleases — ^but  always  at  his  own  cost; 
this  qualification  of  the  principle  is  inseparable  from  it, 
the  core,  as  it  were,  of  his  philosophy. 

The  New  Harmony  experience  had  convinced  Warren 
that  any  theory  of  reform,  however  perfect  or  plausible, 
should  be  put  to  the  test  before  being  offered  to  the  world 
as  a  remedy  for  existing  evils.  To  this  end,  therefore,  he 
undertook  his  first  experiment,  the  Time  store. 

On  the  18th  of  May,  1827,  there  was  unpretentiously 
opened  at  the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Vine  streets  in  Cin- 
cinnati a  small  country  store,  conducted  on  a  plan  new 
to  commerce.  It  was  the  first  Equity  store,  designed  to 
illustrate  and  practicalize  the  cost  principle,  the  germ  of 
the  cooperative  movement  of  the  future.  When  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  store  became  known,  it  proved  to  be  the 
most  popular  mercantile  institution  in  the  city.  The  people 
called  it  the  "  Time  store  "  because  a  clock  was  used  by 
the  merchant  to  determine  the  amount  of  compensation 
for  his  service  in  waiting  upon  the  customers.  The  store- 
keeper exchanged  his  time  for  an  equal  amount  of  the  time 
of  those  who  purchased  goods  from  him.  The  actual  cost 
of  the  goods  bought  was  paid  for  in  cash,  the  labor  note  of 
the  customer  was  given  to  the  merchant  to  pay  for  hie 
service.  It  ran  something  after  this  fashion :  "  Due  to 
Josiah  Warren,  thirty  minutes  in  carpenter  work. — John 

296 


> 


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(—1 
GO 


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THE  LIBRARY 
OF  THE 


JOSIAH    WARREN 

Smith."  Here  was  the  application  of  the  principle  of 
labor  for  labor,  the  cost  principle,  in  its  most  primitive 
form,  which  was  subsequently  modified  to  allow  for  the 
different  valuations  of  the  various  kinds  of  labor. 

The  idea  of  labor  notes  originated  with  Robert  Owen, 
but  Warren's  application  of  it  was  original  and  proved 
entirely  successful.  Though  at  the  beginning  the  Equity 
store  met  with  scant  encouragement,  it  was  but  a  short 
while  until  it  taxed  all  the  reformer's  time  and  energies. 
The  merchant  on  the  next  corner  soon  found  himself  with- 
out occupation,  and  requested  Warren  to  explain  to  him 
the  method  of  conducting  business  on  the  equity  plan. 
The  founder  of  the  movement  was  only  too  happy  to  as- 
sist his  rival  to  convert  his  place  into  a  "  Time  store,"  and 
delighted  to  see  so  quickly  an  instance  of  what  competition 
could  do  in  enforcing  the  adoption  of  more  equitable 
methods  of  exchange. 

Warren's  store  was  a  labor  exchange  where  those  who 
had  products  to  sell  could  dispose  of  them,  provided  the 
goods  were  in  demand,  without  having  to  give  the  lion's 
share  as  profit  to  the  middleman.  It  was  also  a  bureau 
for  labor  seeking  employment,  and  thus  served  to  direct 
the  reformer's  attention  to  the  long  and  useless  apprentice- 
ships by  which  the  common  trades  were  hedged  around. 
He  wished  to  disprove  the  need  for  long  terms  of  industrial 
servitude,  and  this  desire  led  to  the  idea  of  a  cooperative 
village.  Full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  principles  which  he 
was  now  convinced  would  solve  the  deeper  economic  prob- 
lems of  society,  having  tried  them  in  regard  to  the  dis- 
tribution of  wealth,  he  longed  to  see  them  applied  to  its 
production. 

Robert  Dale  Owen  at  this  period  became  interested  in 
Warren's  plans,  but  after  much  waiting,  and  a  visit  to  New 
York  in  1830,  the  Cincinnati  reformer  decided  to  prepare, 
unaided,  for  a  village  experiment.  He  set  himself  to  learn 
many  practical  arts,  including  wagon-building,  wood  and 

297 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

metal  working,  printing  and  type-founding.  The  first 
village  of  Equity  was  commenced  in  Tuscarawas  County, 
Ohio,  and  after  a  two  years'  trial  was  abandoned,  owing  to 
the  malarial  and  unhealthful  condition  of  the  locality. 
Many  interesting  experiments  in  the  industrial  and  practi- 
cal education  of  the  young  were  carried  out  by  Warren, 
which  showed  that  in  this  field  he  was  a  true  pioneer,  for 
it  is  only  to-day  that  his  views  are  finding  realization  in 
the  manual  training-schools  and  technical  institutions  for 
practical  education. 

The  Peaceful  Eevolutionist,  Warren's  first  periodical, 
appeared  in  January,  1833,  but  survived  only  a  few 
months.  It  was  a  four-page  weekly  of  conspicuously  neat 
typography,  and  was  devoted  to  expositions  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  equity.  So  primitive  at  the  time  were  his  re- 
sources, and  so  marvelous  his  skill  and  ingenuity,  that  the 
plates  from  which  the  paper  was  printed  were  cast  over  the 
fire  of  the  same  stove  at  which  the  wife  cooked  the  family 
meals.  The  printing-press  he  used  was  his  own  invention, 
and  with  his  own  hands  he  made  type-molds,  cast  the  type 
and  the  stereo-plates,  built  the  press,  wrote  the  articles,  set 
them  up,  and  printed  off  the  sheets. 

The  years  prior  to  1842  were  devoted  mainly  to  me- 
chanical pursuits  and  printing  inventions.  About  1840 
Warren  constructed  the  first  press  that  was  ever  used  to 
print  newspapers  from  a  roll.  The  following  description 
of  this  mechanism  is  from  an  editorial  which  appeared 
February  28,  1840,  in  an  Evansville  paper: 

"  The  first  number  of  the  Southwestern  Sentinel  is  the 
first  newspaper  probably  in  the  world  which  was  ever 
printed  on  a  continuous  sheet.  Our  press  or  printing  ma- 
chinery is  the  invention  of  Mr.  Josiah  Warren,  of  New 
Harmony.  He  has  brought  a  series  of  experiments  extend- 
ing through  nine  years  to  a  successful  close,  and  this 
machine,  which  he  calls  his  speed  press,  is  one  of  the  re- 
sults." 

298 


J08IAH   WARREN 

Unfortunately  the  innovation  was  opposed  by  the  print- 
ers, who  saw  in  its  labor-saving  power  a  menace  to  their 
interests.  They  deliberately  threw  the  press  out  of  geai 
at  every  opportunity,  and  at  length  so  exasperated  the  in- 
ventor that  he  came  one  day  to  the  Sentinel  office,  had  the 
•     press  hauled  away,  and  deliberately  broke  it  to  pieces. 

Typographical  inventions  continued,  however,  to  oc- 
cupy Warren's  attention.  His  purpose  was  to  extend  his 
stereotyping  inventions  to  all  varieties  of  printing,  illus- 
tration, and  artistic  reproduction.  His  improvements  in 
this  field  he  termed  "  universal  typography." 

The  Indiana  Statesman,  of  New  Harmony,  under  dates 
of  October  4,  1845,  and  March  7,  1846,  contains  flattering 
accounts  of  the  progress  and  utility  of  Warren's  inventions. 
His  typographical  plates  were  durable,  cheap,  and  had  a 
I'  smooth,  glassy  surface,  so  like  stone  that  the  inventor 
termed  them  "  stone-types."  He  claimed  that  the  facility 
with  which  illustrations  could  be  got  up,  the  rapidity  of 
stereotyping  and  printing  them,  together  with  the  dura- 
W  bility  of  the  plates,  justified  the  expectation  that  they  would 
ultimately  supersede  woodcuts,  steel-plate  and  copper-plate 
engraving  and  printing,  and  lithography.  The  process  in- 
cluded printing  in  colors,  besides  a  result  similar  to  what 
is  now  known  as  half-tones. 

While  it  is  doubtful  if  Warren  ever  received  an  equiva- 
lent for  his  ingenuity,  labor,  and  outlay  on  these  inventions, 
at  which  he  worked  during  the  larger  part  of  his  life,  it  is 
certain  that  his  methods  were  utilized  by  others,  and  the 
*  world  is  accordingly  the  gainer  by  his  improvements.  The 
processes  now  in  use  for  the  finer  class  of  stereotype  work 
are  based  upon  his  discoveries.  The  latter  years  of  his  life 
were  devoted  to  studies  and  experiments  with  a  view  to 
perfecting  his  inventions,  and  his  final  results,  it  is  be- 
lieved, were  not  made  known  to  the  world,  nor  rendered 
available  when  death  terminated  his  labors. 

The  New  Harmony  Time  store  was  opened  in  1842.    At 

299 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

first  it  encoimtered  strong  opposition  at  the  hands  of  in- 
terested rivals,  but  its  beneficial  influence  was  soon  felt  in 
a  fall  of  retail  prices  throughout  the  surrounding  country. 
Of  this,  his  second  store  experiment,  Warren  wrote: 
"  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  hopelessness  or  the  un- 
popularity of  reform  movements,  I  will  venture  to  assert 
that  no  institution,  political,  moral,  nor  religious,  ever 
assumed  a  more  sudden  and  extensive  popularity  than  the 
Time  store  of  New  Harmony.  But  it  was  principally 
among  the  poor,  the  humble,  and  the  downtrodden.  None 
of  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to  lead,  none  who  had 
anything  to  lead  with,  offered  the  least  assistance  or  aid, 
nor  scarcely  sympathy,  though  they  did  not  attempt  to 
deny  the  soundness  of  the  principles.  .  .  .  When  all 
the  stores  in  the  surrounding  country  had  come  down  in 
their  prices  to  an  equilibrium  with  the  Equity  store,  the 
custom  naturally  flowed  back  again  to  them,  and  the  next 
step  was  to  wind  up  the  Time  store  and  commence  a  vil- 
lage." 

Warren  next  turned  his  ingenuity  to  the  production  in 
1844-  of  an  original  system  of  music,  denominated  by  him 
"  Mathematical  Notation,"  designated  on  scientific  prin- 
ciples to  accomplish  in  the  representation  of  harmonic 
sounds  a  similar  service  to  that  performed  by  phonography 
in  the  representation  of  the  elements  of  speech.  The 
author  printed  the  book  by  his  newly  perfected  universal 
typography,  and,  as  may  still  be  seen  by  a  copy  preserved  in 
the  library  of  the  New  Harmony  Working  Men's  Institute, 
it  was  a  beautiful  example  of  his  stereotyping  process,  re- 
producing his  own  handwriting  in  delicate  copper-plate. 
Dr.  Mason,  a  musical  authority  of  that  day,  admitted  the 
comprehensiveness  and  simplicity  of  Warren's  musical 
notation,  but  believed  it  would  be  a  hopeless  under- 
taking to  attempt  to  supersede  the  universally  accepted 
system. 

About  this  period  Warren  received  seven  thousand  dol- 

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Of  THE 


JOSIAH    WARREN 

lars  for  his  stereotyping  patents,  and  sucli  a  wave  of  finan- 
cial prosperity  revived  his  desire  to  found  another  Equity 
village.  For  this  purpose  he  secured  land  near  New  Har- 
mony, but  abandoned  it  for  more  favorable  prospects  in 
Ohio.  The  village  of  Utopia  was  founded  by  Warren  in 
1847  about  a  mile  above  Claremont,  a  Fourierist  com- 
munity which  had  just  then  come  to  grief.  Unlike  the 
latter,  there  was  no  common  ownership  of  property  in 
Warren's  experiments.  Each  family  owned  its  own  lot  and 
house  (after  it  was  erected),  but  the  members  of  the  village 
cooperated  in  all  cases  where  it  was  mutually  advantageous 
to  do  so.  Warren's  efforts  were  for  those*  whose  only  means 
ivas  their  labor  force,  and  his  purpose  was  to  demonstrate 
that  such  people,  with  free  access  to  natural  resources, 
could,  by  exchanging  their  labor  on  equitable  terms,  by 
means  of  labor  notes,  build  their  own  houses,  supply  their 
prime  necessities,  and  attain  to  comfort  and  prosperity 
without  dependence  on  capitalists,  or  any  external  author- 
ity, for  the  means  of  life. 

Utopia  went  on  progressing  in  a  quiet  way  for  many 
years.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  settlers  to  avoid  publicity, 
and  to  refrain  from  encouraging  outsiders  to  visit  or  to 
join  them.  One  of  the  pioneers,  E.  G.  Cubberly,  in  Oc- 
tober, 1872,  while  still  residing  in  his  original  home  in 
Utopia,  wrote :  "  The  labor  notes  put  us  into  a  reciprocat- 
ing society — the  result  was,  in  two  years  twelve  families 
found  themselves  with  homes  who  never  owned  homes  be- 
fore. .  .  .  Labor-capital  did  it.  I  built  a  brick  cot- 
tage, one-and-a-half  stories  high,  and  all  the  money  I  paid 
out  was  nine  dollars  and  eighty-one  cents — all  the  rest  was 
effected  by  exchanging  labor  for  labor.  Mr.  Warren  is 
right,  and  the  way  to  get  back  as  much  labor  as  we  give  is 
by  the  labor  cost  prices;  money  prices,  with  no  principle 
to  guide,  have  always  deceived  us." 

It  may  naturally  be  asked  what  became  of  the  village. 
Why  did  equity  villages  not  multiply?    Why  did  the  pio- 

301 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

neers  keep  from  the  public  as  far  as  possible  all  informa- 
tion concerning  them?  To  such  questions  no  satisfactory 
answer  in  a  few  words  can  be  given.  Owing  to  the  high 
price  of  the  surrounding  land,  most  of  the  settlers,  after 
about  four  years,  moved  from  Utopia  into  Minnesota, 
where  land  was  cheap  and  abundant. 

Leaving  the  scenes  of  his  labors  in  Ohio  and  Indiana, 
Warren  in  1850  visited  New  York  and  Boston,  and,  by 
means  of  a  quiet  propaganda,  succeeded  in  arousing  the 
interest  of  many  earnest  people  in  the  individualistic  form 
of  cooperation  advocated  by  him.  He  met  the  brilliant 
writer  and  reformer,  Stephen  Pearl  Andrews,  who  hence- 
forth became  Warren's  most  ardent  disciple,  and  the  liter- 
ary exponent  of  equity.  Andrews'  Science  of  Society,  an 
exposition  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual,  and  cost  the 
limit  of  price,  has  probably  done  more  toward  calling  the 
attention  of  independent  thinkers  and  reformers  to  War- 
ren's philosophy  than  anything  ever  put  forth  by  himself, 
and  is  by  far  the  ablest  statement  of  the  "  principles  '^ 
which  has  yet  appeared. 

As  a  result  of  Warren's  activity  the  Village  of  Modern 
Times  was  founded  in  1851.  The  site  was  on  Long  Island, 
forty  miles  by  railroad  from  New  York  City.  The  soil 
was  considered  worthless,  but  this  did  not  deter  the  en- 
thusiasts of  equity.  They  came  by  ones  and  twos,  and 
gradually  began  to  clear  the  ground  for  market-garden- 
ing, meanwhile  building  themselves  houses  of  such  preten- 
sions as  their  limited  resources  permitted.  About  a  hun- 
dred souls  had  settled  on  the  ground  when  the  New  York 
Tribune  began  to  feature  the  colony  and  create  a  publicity 
as  undesirable  to  the  settlers  as  it  proved  to  be  annoying. 
The  newspaper  notices  brought  many  visitors,  some  to  stay, 
mostly  ignorant  of  the  ideas  on  which  the  village  was 
founded.  True  to  their  principles,  which  allowed  equal 
rights  to  all  in  natural  opportunities,  the  pioneers  re- 
frained from  taking  any  steps  to  exclude  the  newcomers, 

302 


JOSIAH   WARREN 

so  long  as  they  did  not  invade  the  rights  of  others.  This 
devotion  to  principle  had,  however,  its  drawbacks,  though 
in  the  end  it  proved  a  self-corrective.  One  man  began  to 
advocate  plurality  of  wives,  and  started  a  paper  to  support 
his  views.  Another  believed  clothing  to  be  a  superfluity 
and  not  only  personally  practised  his  Adamic  vagaries  but 
inflicted  them  upon  his  helpless  children.  A  woman  who 
would  not  have  passed  for  a  model  of  physical  perfection, 
displayed  herself  in  male  attire,  which  gave  rise  to  the 
newspaper  comment  that  "the  women  of  Modern  Times 
dressed  in  men's  clothes  and  looked  hideous."  Still  an- 
other woman  had  the  diet  mania  so  severely  that,  after 
trying  to  live  on  beans  without  salt  until  reduced  almost  to 
a  skeleton,  she  died  within  a  year.  Whereupon  the  news- 
papers declared :  "  The  people  of  Modern  Times  are  kill- 
ing themselves  with  fanatical  ideas  about  food."  These- 
were  some  of  the  burdens  the  real  settlers  had  to  bear 
because  they  acted  on  the  non-invasive  principle,  and  ac- 
corded liberty  to  do  even  the  silliest  things,  believing  that; 
experience,  and  the  application  of  personal  responsibility 
in  allowing  things  to  be  done  at  each  one's  own  cost,  would 
work  the  surest  and  most  effectual  cure. 

Despite  the  persistent  misrepresentations  and  the  with- 
ering slanders  to  which  the  colony  was  subjected  during- 
its  earlier  years,  the  pioneers  prospered.  But  after  reap- 
ing so  much  of  the  undesirable  fruits  of  notoriety,  the- 
name  was  changed  to  Brentwood,  under  which  appellation 
it  is  still  known. 

Writing  to  an  English  friend  in  1857,  one  of  the  set- 
tlers, Edward  Linton,  asks :  "  You  have  been  here,  sir,. 
and  I  ask  you,  considering  the  natural  obstacles  to  over- 
come, if  you  ever  saw  greater  material  success  attained  in 
so  short  a  time  by  the  same  number  of  people  without  capi- 
tal, and  with  only  their  hands  and  brains  to  operate  with, 
under  all  the  disadvantages  of  habits  formed  by  a  false- 
education  and  training.     .      .      .     And  as  it  regards  in- 

303 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

dividual  and  social  happiness  and  the  entire  absence  of 
vice  and  crime,  I  am  confident  this  settlement  can  not  be 
equaled.  This  is,  emphatically,  the  school  of  life.  It  is 
vrhat  has  been  learned  here,  infinitely  more  than  what  has 
"been  done,  that  constitutes  what  I  consider  the  greatest 
success  of  the  settlement.  What  has  not  been  done  is,  I 
think,  of  far  more  consequence  than  what  has  been  done. 
I  would  rather  that  my  children  would  live  here 
and  have  the  advantages  of  the  society  and  practical  les- 
sons taught  here,  than  for  them  to  have  what  is  called 
an  education  in  the  best  institutions  of  learning  in  the 
world." 

Linton^s  tribute  to  Warren  in  the  same  letter  can  not  be 
omitted :  "  But  whether  I  ever  live  to  see  the  practical 
realization  of  the  principles  or  not,  here  or  elsewhere,  I 
never  can  feel  sufficiently  grateful  to  the  unostentatious 
man  whose  remarkable  and  peculiar  constitution  of  mind 
enabled  him  to  discover  the  most  subtle  and  sublime  truths 
ever  made  known  to  man  for  his  self-government  and  the 
regulation  of  his  intercourse  with  his  neighbors.  In  my 
own  person  and  in  my  own  domestic  affairs  I  have  been 
incalculably  benefited." 

Broad  avenues,  tree-shaded  streets,  pretty  cottages 
surrounded  by  strawberry-beds  and  well-tilled  gardens, 
formed  the  outward  appearance  of  Modern  Times.  The 
occupants  were  honest,  industrious,  and  had  learned  to 
mind  their  own  business,  while  readily  cooperating  with 
their  neighbors  for  mutual  advantage.  They  were  free 
from  sectarian  dissensions,  law-courts,  jails,  rumshops, 
prostitutes,  and  crime.  No  one  acquired  wealth  save  by 
his  own  industry.  Long  afterward  the  people  who  lived 
there  during  the  years  that  the  principles  of  equity  were 
the  only  law  among  citizens,  looked  back  with  regret 
mingled  with  pleasure  on  those  pioneer  days  of  effort  to 
achieve  a  higher  social  ideal. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  equity  villages  did 

304 


*S  AV^ 


n 

LlMIl'  «'I   1S>I 
7^ lie    (o 


A<'':ui;'r>iN< 


r  v  *  \  I '  1 '  v  V 


v: 


llorns 


/; 


furer 


\i  \vi.    t»n  TW'VTVi'  PiiT'VliS  OF  CiiRN 


LABOR   NOTE  ISSUED   BY  .TOSIAH   WARREX, 


JOSIAH    WARREN 

not  fail  in  the  sense  that  Xew  Harmony,  Brook  Farm,  and 
numerous  other  similar  experiments  failed.  The  Modern 
Timers  had  no  trouble  over  property  or  forms  of  govern- 
ment. Each  owned  his  house  and  land,  and  by  mutual 
understanding  political  or  civic  authority  was  dispensed 
with.  None  felt  responsible  for  the  failure  of  his  neigh- 
bors, and  only  aggressive  or  invasive  action  was  resented 
by  combined  action.  The  panic  of  1857,  which  in  New 
York  City  alone  threw  upward  of  twenty  thousand  people 
suddenly  out  of  work,  shattered  a  manufacturing  enter- 
prise that  had  been  successfully  begun  in  Modern  Times. 
Before  the  effects  of  the  ensuing  industrial  depression 
had  cleared  away,  the  country  was  in  the  throes  of 
civil  war,  and  all  hope  of  success  was  for  the  time 
dissipated. 

In  July,  1854,  while  living  at  Modern  Times,  Warren 
began  the  publication  of  his  Periodical  Letters,  a  record 
of  the  movement  and  further  exposition  of  the  principles, 
which  were  issued  with  more  or  less  regularity  until  the 
end  of  1858.  He  spent  the  winter  of  185 5-' 56  visiting  his 
old  friends  in  Ohio  and  Indiana.  After  1860  he  returned 
no  more  to  the  Long  Island  village. 

The  reformer's  activity  declined  with  advancing  age. 
Several  years  were  spent  quietly  at  Cliftondale,  near  Bos- 
ton, and  in  1873  he  went  to  reside  with  his  friends,  the 
Heywoods,  in  their  home  at  Princeton,  Massachusetts.  Here 
he  wrote  and  printed  his  last  production.  Part  III,  of  the 
True  Civilization  series,  giving  "  practical  applications  " 
and  the  "  facts  and  conclusions  of  forty-seven  years'  study 
and  experiments  in  reform  movements  through  commun- 
ism to  elementary  principles  found  in  a  direction  opposite 
to  and  away  from  communism,  but  leading  directly  to  all 
the  harmonic  results  aimed  at  by  communism."  Equitable 
Commerce,  his  first  book,  containing  practically  all  his 
views,  was  first  published  in  1846,  and  was  several  times 
reprinted. 

21  305 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

The  last  months  of  Warren's  life  were  passed  in  Boston 
at  the  house  of  his  early  friend,  Edward  Linton,  where 
he  was  cared  for  in  his  last  illness  by  kindly  hands.  Kate 
Metcalf,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Modern  Times,  nursed  him 
to  the  end,  which  came  on  April  14,  1874. 


306 


CHAPTEE    XXII 

EGBERT   OWEN^S   LATER   LIFE 

*'He  originated  and  organized  infant  schools.  He  secured  a  re- 
duction  of  the  hours  of  labor  for  women  and  children  in  factories. 
He  was  a  liberal  supporter  of  the  earlier  efforts  to  obtain  national 
education.  He  labored  to  promote  international  arbitration.  He  was 
one  of  the  foremost  Englishmen  who  tauglit  men  to  aspire  to  a  higher 
social  state  by  reconciling  the  interests  of  capital  and  labor.  He  spent 
his  life  and  a  large  fortune  in  seeking  to  improve  his  fellow  men  by 
giving  them  education,  self-reliance,  and  moral  worth.  His  life  was 
sanctified  by  human  affection  and  lofty  effort." — Inscription  on  monu- 
ment to  Robert  Owen  in  Kensal  Green  Cemetery, 

In"  the  autumn  of  1827  Eobert  Owen  arrived  again  in 
England.  Through  negotiations  with  the  minister  from 
Mexico  to  the  Court  of  St.  James  he  projected  a  plan 
for  communistic  colonization  in  the  provinces  of  Texas 
and  Coahuila.  Immense  tracts  of  land  in  these  provinces 
were  to  be  set  apart  for  Mr.  Owen^s  use,  though  remain- 
ing under  Mexican  control,  and  here  he  was  to  be  given 
an  opportunity  to  establish  a  vast  communistic  common- 
wealth, colonized  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  Mr. 
Owen  went  to  Mexico  in  order  to  complete  these  plans, 
but  the  negotiations  came  to  an  end  when  he  discovered 
that  the  degree  of  religious  toleration  he  demanded  would 
not  be  granted.  In  the  spring  of  1829  he  was  again  at 
New  Harmony,  and  in  April  of  that  year  he  met  Alex- 
ander Campbell  in  a  famous  debate  on  religious  ques- 
tions. The  discussion  was  held  in  Cincinnati,  and  lasted 
several  days,  before  immense  audiences.    It  was  a  veritable 

307 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

battle  between  giants ;  for  years  the  printed  report  of  these 
debates  was  read  and  reread  throughout  the  West. 

From  Cincinnati  he  journeyed  to  Washington,  where 
he  interested  himself  in  bringing  about  a  better  feeling 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  As  he 
became  intimately  associated  with  President  Jackson  and 
Secretary  of  State  Van  Buren,  his  labors  were  not  with- 
out effect.  The  same  year  he  returned  to  England  and 
began  the  campaign  in  behalf  of  cooperation  which  he 
continued  to  the  end  of  his  life.  His  systems  of  "  labor 
exchange "  and  "  equitable  commerce ''  attracted  wide 
attention,  and  have  developed  into  the  great  labor  co- 
operative system  of  Great  Britain. 

Eobert  Owen  frequently  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  visit 
his  sons  and  daughter  in  America,  and  to  urge  his  plans 
on  this  side  of  the  ocean.  As  late  as  1844,  while  Fourier- 
ism  was  planting  its  phalansteres  in  America,  he  arrived 
in  New  York  and  published  an  address  to  the  people  of 
America,  declaring  that  he  had  come  "  to  effect  in  peace 
the  greatest  revolution  ever  yet  made  in  human  society." 
He  called  a  world^s  convention  to  consider  reform  move- 
ments, in  1845,  but  this  was  a  failure.  Adin  Ballon,  as 
quoted  by  Noyes,  said  of  him  at  this  time : 

"  Robert  Owen  is  a  remarkable  character.  In  years, 
nearly  seventy-five;  in  knowledge  and  experience,  super- 
abundant; in  benevolence  of  heart,  transcendental;  in 
honesty,  without  disguise ;  in  philanthropy,  unlimited ;  in 
religion,  a  skeptic;  in  theology,  a  Pantheist;  in  meta- 
physics, a  necessarian  circumstantialist ;  in  morals,  a  uni- 
versal executionist ;  in  general  conduct,  a  philosophic 
non-resistant;  in  socialism,  a  communist;  in  hope,  a  ter- 
restrial elysianist;  in  practical  business,  a  methodist;  in 
deportment,  an  unequivocal  gentleman.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Owen  has  vast  schemes  to  develop,  and  vast  hopes  of 
speedy  success  in  establishing  a  great  model  of  the  new 
social  state,  which  will  quite  instantaneously,  as  he  thinks, 

308 


ROBERT   OWEN'S   LATER   LIFE 

bring  the  human  race  into  a  terrestrial  paradise.  He  in- 
sists on  obtaining  a  million  of  dollars  to  be  expended  in 
lands,  buildings,  machinery,  conveniences,  and  beautifica- 
tions  for  his  model  community.  He  flatters  himself  he 
shall  be  able,  by  some  means,  to  induce  capitalists,  or 
perhaps  Congress,  to  furnish  the  capital  for  this  object. 
We  were  frankly  obliged  to  shake  an  incredulous  head 
and  tell  him  how  groundless,  in  our  judgment,  such 
splendid  anticipations  must  prove.  He  took  it  in  good 
part,  and  declared  his  confidence  unshaken  and  his  hopes 
undiscourageable  by  any  man^s  unbelief." 

Eobert  Owen  spent  the  following  winter  in  New  Har- 
mony. In  June,  1846,  he  addressed  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  the  State  of  New  York  on  Human  Eights 
and  Progress. 

"  Six  times,"  says  Noyes,  "  after  he  was  fifty  years 
old,  and  twice  after  he  was  seventy,  he  crossed  the  At- 
lantic and  back  in  the  service  of  communism.  Let  us  not 
say  that  all  this  wonderful  activity  was  useless.  Let  us 
not  call  this  man  a  driveler  and  a  monomaniac.  Let  us 
rather  acknowledge  that  he  was  receiving  and  distribu- 
ting an  inspiration,  unknown  even  to  himself,  that  had 
a  sure  aim,  and  that  it  is  at  this  moment  conquering  the 
world.  His  hallucination  was  not  in  his  expectations, 
but  in  his  ideas  of  time  and  methods." 

Ealph  Waldo  Emerson  makes  some  interesting  allu- 
sions to  Eobert  Owen  as  he  appeared  to  him  in  1845. 
"  Eobert  Owen  of  New  Lanark,"  he  says,  "  came  hither 
from  England  in  1845  to  read  lectures  or  hold  conversa- 
tions wherever  he  could  find  listeners — the  most  amiable, 
sanguine,  and  candid  of  men.  He  had  not  the  least  doubt 
that  he  had  hit  on  the  plan  of  right  and  perfect  social- 
ism, or  that  mankind  would  adopt  it.  He  was  then 
seventy  years  old,  and  being  asked,  '  Well,  Mr.  Owen, 
who  is  your  disciple  ?  how  many  men  are  there  possessed 
of  your  views  who  will  remain  after  you  are  gone  to  put 

309 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

them  in  practise  ? '  replied,  ^  Not  one.'  Eobert  Owen 
knew  Fourier  in  his  old  age.  He  said  that  Fourier 
learned  of  him  all  the  truth  that  he  had.  The  rest  of 
his  system  was  imagination  and  the  imagination  of  a 
visionary.  Owen  made  the  best  impression  by  his  rare 
benevolence.  His  love  of  men  made  us  forget  his  '  three 
errors.^  His  charitable  construction  of  men  and  their 
actions  was  invariable.  He  was  the  better  Christian  in 
his  controversies  with  Christians. 

"  And  truly  I  honor  the  generous  ideas  of  the  social- 
ists, the  magnificence  of  their  theories,  and  the  enthu- 
siasm with  which  they  have  been  urged.  They  appeared 
inspired  men  of  their  time.  Mr.  Owen  preached  his  doc- 
trine of  labor  and  reward  with  the  fidelity  and  devotion 
of  a  saint  in  the  slow  ears  of  his  generation. 

"  One  feels  that  these  philosophers  have  skipped  no 
fact  but  one,  namely,  life.  They  treat  man  as  a  plastic 
thing,  or  something  that  may  be  put  up  or  down,  ripened 
or  retarded,  molded,  polished,  made  into  solid  or  fluid 
or  gas  at  the  will  of  the  leader ;  or  perhaps  as  a  vegetable, 
from  which,  though  now  a  very  poor  crab,  a  very  good 
peach  can  by  manure  and  exposure  be  in  time  produced — 
and  skip  the  faculty  of  life  which  spawns  and  spurns  sys- 
tems and  system  makers;  which  eludes  all  conditions; 
which  makes  or  supplants  a  thousand  Phalanxes  and  New 
Harmonies  with  each  pulsation. 

"  It  would  be  better  to  say,  let  us  be  lovers  and  serv- 
ants of  that  which  is  just,  and  straightway  every  man 
becomes  the  center  of  a  holy  and  beneficent  republic 
which  he  sees  to  include  all  men  in  its  laws,  like  that  of 
Plato  and  of  Christ. 

"  Yet,  in  a  day  of  small,  sour,  and  fierce  schemes,  one 
is  admonished  and  cheered  by  a  project  of  such  friendly 
aims  and  of  such  bold  and  generous  proportions;  there 
is  an  intellectual  courage  and  strength  in  it  which  is 
superior  and  commanding;  it  certifies  the  presence  of  so 

310 


ROBERT    OWEN'S   LATER   LIFE 

much  truth  in  the  theory,  and  in  so  far  is  destined  to  be 
fact. 

"I  regard  these  philanthropists  as  themselves  the 
effects  of  the  age  in  which  they  live,  in  common  with  so 
many  other  good  facts  the  efflorescence  of  the  period  and 
predicting  the  good  fruit  that  ripens.  They  were  not  the 
creators  that  they  believed  themselves  to  be;  but  they 
were  unconscious  prophets  of  the  true  state  of  society, 
one  which  the  tendencies  of  nature  lead  unto,  one  which 
always  establishes  itself  for  the  sane  soul,  though  not 
in  that  manner  in  which  they  paint  it." 

In  his  later  years  Mr.  Owen  came  to  recognize  a  truth 
which  he  had  overlooked  in  all  his  schemes  for  social  re- 
generation— the  controlling  influence  of  the  spiritual  na- 
ture. As  he  himself  confessed,  while  he  had  provided  for 
the  physical,  the  intellectual,  and  the  moral  needs  of 
man,  he  had  overlooked  the  spiritual.  "  Yet,  this,  as  he 
now  saw,"  says  Sargent,  "was  the  most  important  of  all 
in  the  future  development  of  mankind.  .  .  .  Owen 
says  that  in  looking  back  over  his  past  life  he  can  trace 
the  finger  of  God  directing  his  steps,  preserving  his  life 
under  imminent  dangers,  and  impelling  him  onward  on 
many  occasions." 

"  For  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life,"  says  Lloyd  Jones, 
"  the  proceedings  of  Eobert  Owen  had  ceased  to  be  dis- 
cussed in  the  newspapers  and  on  the  platform.  It  need 
not  be  concluded  from  this^  however,  that  he  was  entirely 
inactive.  He  republished  a  considerable  portion  of  his 
earlier  writings,  among  other  things  his  plan  for  dealing 
with  the  wretched  condition  of  Ireland.  He  restated  his 
views  on  national  education,  maintaining  that  '  the  great 
want  of  the  world  was  a  good  training  from  birth,  and 
a  sound,  practical  education  for  all,  based  on  true  prin- 
ciples.' He  drew  up  proposals  for  a  treaty  of  federation 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of  North 
America — ^^the  gist  of  which  is  that  Great  Britain  and 

311 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

America  should  declare  their  interests  to  be  the  same; 
should  agree  to  a  federative  union  to  which  all  other 
nations  should  be  admitted,  and  recognize  it  as  a  duty  to 
terminate  war  and  live  in  the  abundance  of  a  peaceful 
industry  and  friendly  exchange/^  Thus  Robert  Owen 
anticipated  by  fifty  years  propositions  which  have  in 
recent  years  been  made  for  a  permanent  treaty  of  arbi- 
tration between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 

As  late  as  1857,  while  in  his  eighty-sixth  year,  Mr. 
Owen  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Social  Science  Associa- 
tion at  Birmingham,  and  read  a  paper  on  The  Human 
Eace  Governed  without  Punishment.  Attempting  to 
read  a  paper  at  the  meeting  of  the  association  at  Liver- 
pool the  following  year,  he  broke  down  and  was  carried 
from  the  platform.  He  was  taken  to  his  native  town  of 
Newton,  where  he  secured  accommodations  in  the  house 
next  to  the  place  where  he  was  born.  Robert  Dale  Owen 
was  summoned  from  Naples,  where  he  was  charge 
d'affaires  for  the  United  States,  and,  holding  the  hand  of 
his  distinguished  son,  the  great  philanthropist  breathed 
his  last.    His  last  words  were,  "  Relief  has  come." 

"  The  agitation  of  Owen,"  writes  his  friend  and  fol- 
lower, Lloyd  Jones,  "  was  unsuccessful  in  its  immediate 
results,  but  though  the  immediate  consummation  of  our 
hopes  be  denied,  it  is  for  us  to  work  on  as  wisely  and  as 
faithfully  as  we  can,  trusting  the  fulfilment  will  come, 
perhaps  in  a  better  way  and  at  a  time  more  suitable  than 
he  could  appoint.  For  everything  done  by  Robert  Owen 
and  his  friends  in  founding  cooperative  villages  and  work- 
shops, there  is  ample  recompense  in  the  present  success 
of  the  cooperative  idea.  I  think  it  constitutes  an  especial 
claim  on  our  gratitude  that  Owen  brought  into  practical 
activity  for  the  public  good  the  energies  of  the  humblest 
and  the  poorest,  to  augment  the  vast  popular  power  by 
which  the  present  cooperative  movement  is  maintained. 
It  is  only  since  Owen^s  influence  has  been  felt  that  it  can 

312 


ROBERT   OWEN'S   LATER   LIFE 

truly  be  said  the  masses  of  the  people  have  been  brought 
collectively  into  action  for  the  promotion  of  objects 
which  have  been  attended  by  results  that  are  likely  to  be 
permanent;  because,  while  they  secure  general  advan- 
tages, they  confer  a  general  discipline  and  strength. 
The  cooperative  movement  is  rapidly  becoming  a  national 
movement,  sustained  by  the  development  and  activity  of 
an  ever-increasing  popular  knowledge.  ...  In  every 
effort  he  made  for  the  benefit  of  society  his  aims  were 
honest,  his  industry  unimpeachable,  his  generosity  un- 
bounded, his  sacrifices  great  and  unhesitatingly  incurred. 
He  labored  for  the  people;  he  died  working  for  them, 
and  his  last  thought  was  for  their  welfare.^' 


313 


CHAPTEE    XXIII 

ISTEW   harmony's    LATER   HISTORY 

When  Eobert  Owen's  splendid  social  bark  went  to 
wreck  upon  the  rocks  and  shoals  of  human  nature  at  New 
Harmony,  the  company  of  genius  which  in  part  composed 
its  crew  was  left  stranded  on  what  then  seemed  a  desert 
island  in  the  illimitable  wilderness.  But  that  little  cen- 
ter of  progressive  thought  and  philanthropic  spirit  be- 
came a  lighthouse  destined  to  diffuse  its  guiding  rays  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  frontier  State  of  which  it  was  a 
part.  Through  William  Maclure  New  Harmony  was  to 
give  a  vast  impetus  to  popular  education,  particularly 
throughout  the  West ;  through  David  Dale  Owen  and  his 
coadjutors  it  was  to  accelerate  the  development  of  Ameri- 
can science;  through  Frances  Wright  it  was  to  fix  its 
indelible  impress  upon  American  popular  sentiment; 
through  Eobert  Dale  Owen  it  was  to  become  a  potent 
factor  in  American  institutional  development;  through 
Josiah  Warren  it  was  to  affect  the  trend  of  economic 
thought,  and  through  Eobert  Owen,  his  views  modified 
in  the  great  school  of  experience  he  had  set  up  at  New 
Harmony,  it  was  to  exert  an  influence  in  fixing  the  tend- 
encies of  the  cooperative  movement  in  England  and  the 
United  States. 

The  residence  in  New  Harmony  of  William  Maclure, 
Gerard  Troost,  Thomas  Say,  Charles  A.  Lesueur,  and  the 
younger  Owens,  made  it  the  rendezvous  of  scientists  for 
many  years.  Prince  Maximilian  von  Neuweid,  with  his 
corps  of  scientific  explorers,  spent  the  winter  of  1832  at 

314 


NEW   HARMONTS   LATER    HISTORY 

New  Harmony,  making  a  careful  study  of  local  natural 
history  in  company  with  Say  and  Lesueur.  Prince  Maxi- 
milian was  one  of  the  most  indefatigable  scientific  ex- 
plorers of  the  first  half  of  this  century.  He  left  the  Prus- 
sian Army  after  attaining  the  rank  of  general  and  set  out 
on  an  expedition  through  the  interior  of  Brazil,  studying 
especially  the  natural  history,  geology,  and  ethnology  of 
that  region.  He  published  the  results  of  this  expedition 
in  several  volumes.  In  1832-^34  he  traveled  in  the  United 
States  "under  the  title  of  Baron  Braunberg,  accom- 
panied by  his  artist  Bodmer  and  his  taxidermist  Drei- 
doppel."  After  visiting  the  larger  Eastern  cities,  he  em- 
barked from  Pittsburg  for  New  Harmony  on  October  9, 
1832.  He  arrived  at  New  Harmony  on  October  19th.  In 
the  following  spring  he  descended  the  Wabash  and  Ohio 
rivers  to  Cairo  by  steamboat,  thence  ascending  the  Miss- 
issippi to  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Missouri  to 
the  Eocky  Mountain  region.  In  May  and  June,  1833,  he 
was  again  at  New  Harmony.  Early  in  June,  1834,  accom- 
panied by  C.  A.  Lesueur,  he  went  by  wagon  from  New 
Harmony  through  Owensville,  Princeton,  Vincennes, 
"  thence  eastward  very  near  the  route  now  followed  by 
the  B.  and  0.  S.  W.  Ey.  across  Indiana;  thence  north- 
ward to  Lake  Erie;  thence  eastward  via  Niagara  Falls 
to  Boston.^'  His  observations  during  his  American  jour- 
neys were  embodied  in  two  large  volumes,  entitled  Eeise 
Durch  Nord  Amerika,  published  at  Coblentz,  1838-43 
— "  one  quarto  volume  of  texts  and  illustrations  and 
another  folio  volume  of  maps  and  texts."  "  An  English 
version  of  this  text  was  published  in  1843,"  says  Dr. 
Schnack,  "but  the  translation  is  a  very  free  one,  and 
therefore  not  accurate  or  available  for  scientific  purposes. 
His  journal  contains  many  valuable  observations  in 
almost  all  departments  of  physical  and  natural  science, 
being  especially  interesting  on  birds,  reptiles,  and  flowers, 
not  omitting  geology,  and  the  habits  and  manners  of  the 

315 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

natives.  The  Maximilian  Collection  of  Birds  is  in  the 
possession  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
in  New  York  City,  and  is  regarded  as  a  valuable  collec- 
tion. In  his  journal  he  gives  a  list  of  fifty-eight  trees 
and  mentions  a  large  number  of  shrubs  he  had  observed 
in  the  vicinity  of  New  Harmony/^ 

In  June,  1839,  Dr.  David  Dale  Owen,  who,  since  the 
close  of  the  community  experiments,  had  returned  to 
Europe  in  order  to  pursue  his  studies  in  geology,  in  1835 
had  taken  a  medical  degree  from  the  Ohio  Medical  Col- 
lege, and  in  1837  had  been  commissioned  to  make  a  pre- 
liminary geological  survey  of  Indiana,  was  appointed 
United  States  geologist.  His  headquarters  were  estab- 
lished at  New  Harmony,  and  he  was  given  instructions 
to  make  a  survey  of  the  Northwest,  including  what  is 
now  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  the  northern  part 
of  Illinois,  with  a  view  to  locating  mineral  lands  pre- 
liminary to  the  sale  of  the  public  domain.  This  great 
work  was  completed  in  two  months.  Dr.  Schnack  thus 
describes  Dr.  Owen's  interesting  method  of  work :  "  A 
large  number  of  men,  many  of  them  eminent  scientists, 
were  employed.  The  entire  corps  was  divided  into  two 
companies,  each  having  an  intelligent  head  to  look  after 
the  work;  and  to  each  company  was  allotted  a  district, 
in  which  every  section  was  to  be  visited  and  samples  of 
the  rock,  etc.,  collected. 

"  At  stated  points  Dr.  Owen  would  meet  each  camp 
and  study  the  work  accomplished.  The  country  was 
almost  without  settlements,  and  each  camp  had  to  be 
supplied  with  hunters,  whose  duty  it  was  to  furnish  game 
for  subsistence.  In  looking  over  Dr.  Owen's  report  one 
can  not  fail  to  appreciate  the  skill  and  fidelity  with  which 
this  great  geologist  performed  this  extensive  survey  un- 
der immense  difficulties  and  in  such  a  short  time.  He 
carried  with  him,  on  the  trip  up  the  Mississippi  Eiver, 
supplies  of  the  most  important  rocks,  minerals,  and  re- 

316 


NEW   HARMONY'S   LATER   HISTORY 

r 

agents.  These  were  exposed  on  a  table  in  the  cabin  of  the 
steamboat,  and  he  would  daily  give  his  men  instruction 
in  geology  and  point  out  the  characteristic  rocks  of  the 
leading  formations,  and  the  minerals  likely  to  be  found 
in  them/' 

In  this  way,  by  the  time  they  reached  the  place  to  dis- 
embark they  had  been  made  acquainted  with  the  first 
principles  of  geology.  "  In  after  years/'  continues  Dr. 
Schnack,  "  this  region  was  more  systematically  surveyed 
by  Dr.  Owen.  The  headquarters  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  continued  at  New  Harmony  up  to 
1856,  when,  at  the  completion  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tute building  at  Washington,  they  were  conveyed  to  that 
building.  A  part  of  the  immense  collection  was  taken  to 
Washington,  another  to  the  Indiana  State  University  at 
Bloomington,  and  a  third  to  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  in  Central  Park,  New  York.  In  passing 
through  the  first  and  last  of  these  institutions,  I  have 
been  surprised  to  find  such  a  large  proportion  of  the 
specimens  in  all  departments  labeled  as  coming  from  the 
New  Harmony  collection." 

When  New  Harmony  became  the  headquarters  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey  the  old  granary-fortress 
of  the  Harmonists,  which  had  been  equipped  with  gra- 
tings and  loopholes  by  the  Eappites  for  protection  against 
marauders,  was  turned  into  a  museum.  In  this  were 
stored  not  only  the  specimens  collected  by  surveying  par- 
ties, but  the  collections  made  by  Thomas  Say  in  the  sur- 
rounding States,  and  by  William  Maclure  in  Spain,  Portu- 
gal, Italy,  France,  Mexico,  and  the  West  Indies.  Over 
the  old  desk  at  New  Harmony  Hall  lectures  on  chemistry, 
geology,  and  biology  were  delivered  by  the  leading  scien- 
tists of  the  country  and  the  foreign  travelers  attracted 
to  New  Harmony  by  its  international  reputation  as  a 
scientific  center. 

One  of  Dr.  Owen's  most  valuable  assistants  in  the 

317 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

prosecution  of  the  geological  surveys  undertaken  from 
New  Harmony  was  Eiehard  Owen,  who  was  a  young  man 
of  eighteen,  "  fresh  from  the  schools  of  Europe,"  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  community  period.  Another  was  the 
coworker  of  Thomas  Say,  Charles  A.  Lesueur,  who  lived 
in  New  Harmony  many  years,  exploring  the  mounds  of 
southern  Indiana,  writing  voluminously  on  the  fishes  and 
mollusks  of  the  West,  and  "  making  his  living  largely 
with  his  pencil  in  painting  and  making  sketches."  Le- 
sueur finally  returned  to  France  and  spent  the  last  years 
of  his  life  as  curator  of  the  museum  at  Havre.  John 
Chappelsmith,  "  a  wealthy  Englishman,  an  artist  and 
engraver,"  drew  many  of  the  cuts  of  fossils  for  the  geo- 
logical reports,  and  made  meteorological  observations  for, 
a  number  of  years.  Mrs.  Chappelsmith  was  an  enthu- 
siastic student  of  entomology,  and  had  some  reputation 
as  a  lecturer. 

James  Sampson,  who  came  to  New  Harmony  in  1828, 
was  another  scientific  student  of  the  David  Owen  regime. 
"  After  making  in  the  dry-goods  business  a  sufficient  in- 
come," wrote  Colonel  Eiehard  Owen,  "he  devoted  him- 
self to  collecting  objects  of  natural  history,  by  hunting 
and  fishing  as  well  as  by  exchange,  until  he  had  accu- 
mrdated  quite  an  extensive  collection,  more  especially  of 
land  and  fresh-water  shells  and  archeological  specimens, 
his  whole  residence  being  virtually  a  museum." 

Alexander  Maclure,  brother  of  William  Maclure,  lived 
in  New  Harmony  many  years,  engaged  in  study  and  the 
administration  of  his  brother^s  affairs.  He  was  especially 
interested  in  social  science. 

Connected  with  the  geological  survey,  to  again  quote 
Dr.  Schnack,  were  "  Colonel  Charles  Whittlesy,  the  vet- 
eran geologist;  F.  B.  Meek,  the  eminent  paleontologist, 
who  determined  and  sketched  most  of  the  fossil  animals 
for  the  reports  of  the  Illinois  geological  survey ;  Leo  Les- 
quereux,  the  noted  fossil  botanist,  who  has  described  and 

318 


NEW   HARMONY'S  LATER   HISTORY 

sketched  more  fossil  plants  of  IN'orth  America  than  all 
the  rest  of  the  authors  combined;  .  .  .  Dr.  Elder- 
horst,  author  of  a  standard  work  on  the  Blowpipe,  and 
Dr.  C.  C.  Parry,  who  served  on  Dr.  Owen^s  geological  sur- 
vey of  the  Northwest  in  1848,  and  whose  knowledge  of 
the  Western  flora  was  probably  exceeded  by  none.''^ 
Eobert  Henry  Fauntleroy,  of  the  United  States  Coast 
Survey,  spent  several  years  at  Xew  Harmony,  where  he 
made  some  interesting  experiments  in  magnetic  declina- 
tion and  intensity.  He  married,  in  1835,  Miss  Jane  Dale 
Owen,  Robert  Owen's  daughter.  Samuel  Bolton,  an  Eng- 
lish chemist,  lectured  frequently  on  his  specialty  in  Xew 
Harmony,  beginning  as  early  as  1828.  Evidence  of  the 
importance  of  Xew  Harmony  as  a  scientific  center  is 
found  in  the  number  of  State  geologists  appointed  from 
that  place.  David  Dale  Owen  occupied  this  position  in 
Kentucky  from  1854  to  1857^  in  Arkansas  from  1857  to 
1859,  and  in  1859  and  1860  was  State  geologist  of  Indi- 
ana, his  service  being  terminated  by  his  death.  He  was 
succeeded  in  Indiana  by  Richard  Owen,  who  later  became 
colonel  of  an  Indiana  infantry  regiment  during  the  civil 
war,  and  for  fifteen  years,  beginning  in  1864,  was  pro- 
fessor of  natural  science  in  the  Indiana  State  University, 
— ^the  first  of  a  series  of  great  students  and  teachers  who 
have  given  this  institution  wide  repute  as  a  center  of 
instruction  and  research  in  natural  science.  Richard 
Owen  survived  all  other  members  of  the  famous  Owen 
second  generation,  dying  in  his  eighty-first  year  at 
New  Harmony  on  March  24,  1890.  Dr.  Gerard  Troost 
became  a  professor  of  chemistry  and  mineralogy  in  the 
Nashville  University,  and  was  later  State  geologist  of 
Tennessee.  Major  Sidney  Lyon  superintended  the  geo- 
detic and  topographical  survey  of  Kentucky.  Professor 
A.  H.  Worthen  served  as  state  geologist  of  Illinois  from 
1858  until  his  death  nearly  thirty  years  later,  during 
which  time  he  published  seven  volumes  of  reports,  "  con- 

319 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

stituting  probably  the  most  complete  geological  survey 
that  has  been  made  of  any  Western  State/'  Prof.  E.  T. 
Cox,  son  of  one  of  the  Owenite  communists,  was  State 
geologist  of  Indiana  from  1868  to  1880.  Dr.  J.  C.  Nor- 
wood conducted  an  early  State  geological  survey  of 
Illinois. 

Among  the  visitors  to  New  Harmony  while  it  was  a 
scientific  Mecca  were  Audubon,  the  ornithologist,  then  a 
storekeeper  at  Henderson,  Kentucky,  forty  miles  distant, 
and  Dr.  George  Engelman,  who  rode  to  the  place  on 
horseback  from  St.  Louis  in  February,  1840,  only  to  miss 
seeing  the  coterie  of  scientists  he  had  expected  to  meet 
there.  He  chronicles  as  the  result  of  his  trip  the  sight 
of  a  "  broad-fruited  maple  in  bloom.^' 

Sir  Charles  Lyell,  the  eminent  Scottish  geologist,  was 
one  of  the  last  of  the  many  European  scientific  explorers 
who  visited  New  Harmony  during  its  scientific  golden  age. 
On  his  second  tour  of  the  United  States  in  1845-'46,  he 
came  by  boat  from  New  Orleans  up  the  Mississippi  and 
Ohio  to  Mount  Vernon,  thence  by  stage  to  New  Harmony. 
In  his  notes  he  says :  "  We  spent  several  days  very  agree- 
ably at  New  Harmony,  where  we  were  most  hospitably  en- 
tertained bv  Dr.  and  Mrs.  David  Dale  Owen. 
Some  large  buildings,  in  the  German  style  of  architec- 
ture, stand  conspicuous,  .  .  .  the  principal  edifice 
being  now  appropriated  as  a  public  museum,  in  which  I 
found  a  good  geological  collection,  both  fossils  and  min- 
erals, made  during  the  State  survey,  and  I  was  glad  to 
learn  that  by  an  act  of  the  Indiana  Legislature,  with  a 
view  of  encouraging  science,  this  building  is  exempt  from 
taxation.  Lectures  on  chemistry  and  geology  are  given 
here  in  the  winter.  Many  families  of  superior  intelli- 
gence, English,  Swiss,  and  German,  have  settled  in  the 
place,  and  there  is  a  marked  simplicity  in  their  manner 
of  living  which  reminded  us  of  Germany.  They  are  very 
sociable,    and    there    were    many   private   parties,    where 

320 


1^ 


as 

i3 


32 


NEW.   HARMONY'S   LATER   HISTORY 

there  was  music  and  dancing,  and  a  public  assembly  once 
a  week^  to  one  of  which  we  went^  where  quadrilles  and 
waltzes  were  danced,  the  band  consisting  of  amateur 
musicians.     .     .     . 

"  We  found  also,  among  the  residents,  a  brother  of 
William  Maclure,  the  geologist,  who  placed  his  excellent 
library  and  carriage  at  our  disposal.  He  lends  his  books 
freely  among  the  citizens,  and  they  are  much  read.  We 
were  glad  to  hear  many  recent  publications,  some  of  the 
most  expensively  illustrated  works,  discussed  and  criti- 
cized in  society  here.  We  were  also  charmed  to  meet 
with  many  children,  happy  and  merry,  yet  perfectly  obe- 
dient; and  once  more  to  see  what,  after  the  experience  of 
the  last  two  or  three  months,  struck  us  as  a  singular 
phenomenon  in  the  New  World,  a  shy  child.  There  is  no 
church  or  place  of  public  worship  in  New  Harmony,  a 
peculiarity  which  we  never  remarked  in  any  town  of 
half  the  size  in  the  course  of  our  tour  of  the  United 
States.  Being  here  on  week-days,  only,  I  had  no  oppor- 
tunity of  observing  whether  on  Sunday  there  were  any 
meetings  for  social  worship.  I  heard  that  when  the 
people  of  Evansville  once  reproached  the  citizens  of  this 
place  for  having  no  churches,  they  observed  that  they  also 
had  no  shops  for  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquors,  which  is 
still  a  characteristic  of  New  Harmony." 


22  321 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

THE   MACLURE   LIBRAEY   MOVEMENT 

In  the  person  of  William  Maclure,  New  Harmony 
gave  to  the  United  States  its  first  great  founder  of 
libraries.  Though  the  earlier  gifts  to  public  libraries 
from  the  "  Father  of  American  Geology  ^^  lacked  the  mu- 
nificence of  those  by  which  the  Master  of  Skibo  Castle  has 
startled  the  world,  yet  they  were  equally  as  generous 
and  even  more  timely,  for  they  were  given  in  pioneer 
days,  when  standards  of  culture  were  being  established, 
when  frontier  manhood  and  womanhood  were  being 
formed,  when  the  foundations  for  the  public-library  sys- 
tems of  to-day  were  being  laid. 

Though  the  utter  collapse  of  his  educational  experi- 
ments at  New  Harmony  during  and  after  the  Owen. 
regime  discouraged  Maclure  from  any  further  attempts 
to  establish  self-supporting  schools  for  children,  not 
even  old  age  and  failing  health  abated  his  interest  in  the 
productive  classes  nor  his  conviction  that  education  was 
the  only  means  by  which  those  classes  could  be  rescued 
from  the  oppression  under  which  he  believed  them  to  be 
suffering.  Feeling  the  rapid  approach  of  death,  Maclure 
determined  to  attempt  one  more  venture  for  the  edu- 
cation of  those  who  "  earn  their  living  in  the  sweat  of 
their  brows." 

Nine  years  after  his  departure  from  New  Harmony 
to  Mexico,  Maclure,  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  sick 
unto  death,  focused  a  renewed  benevolence  upon  the 
little  town  that  had  been  the  scene  of  bitter  defeat  to 

322 


WILLIAM  MACLUEE. 


TEE   MACLURE   LIBRARY   MOVEMENT 

his  former  educational  experiment;  and  upon  his  native 
land,  whose  social  and  industrial  system  he  had  so  often 
and  so  bitterly  denounced. 

The  Working  Men's  Institute  was  the  only  one  of 
Maclure's  pathetic  educational  efforts  at  New  Harmony 
which  weathered  the  collapse  of  The  New  Moral  World 
successfully.  This  institute,  modeled  after  the  noted 
Mechanics'  Institutes  then  so  much  in  vogue  in  the  Brit- 
ish Isles,  was  a  club  of  laboring  men  holding  stated  meet- 
ings from  house  to  house  for  the  discussion  of  social, 
political,  and  religious  questions  and  for  mutual  instruc- 
tion. A  few  years  after  Maclure's  departure  the  insti- 
tute "  went  to  sleep."  He  determined  to  resurrect  the 
organization,  give  it  a  permanent  home,  add  a  library  to 
it,  and  make  it  a  model  for  other  and  similar  institutions 
to  be  established  by  him  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 

As  a  result  of  a  vigorous  correspondence  between 
Maclure  and  the  citizens  of  New  Harmony  "  who  labor 
with  their  hands,"  the  Working  Men's  Institute  was  reju- 
venated and  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  the  State. 
He  immediately  gave  the  organization  an  order  upon  a 
London  bookseller  for  books  to  the  value  of  one  thousand 
dollars,  and  conveyed  to  it  as  a  permanent  home  a  wing 
of  the  old  Eappite  church. 

Death  cut  short  his  further  plans.  While  returning 
to  the  Wabash  country  for  the  purpose  of  executing  a 
trust  providing  generously  for  this,  his  anticipated 
"  model  library  and  institute,"  he  expired  near  the  little 
village  of  San  Angel,  Mexico,  after  a  short  illness,  on 
the  27th  of  March,  1840. 

In  his  last  will  and  testament,  drawn  and  signed  be- 
fore the  United  States  Consul  in  the  City  of  Mexico, 
Maclure  provided  for  the  inauguration  of  a  system  of 
libraries.  Though  his  estate  was  but  a  pittance  as  com- 
pared with  the  holdings  of  Mr.  Carnegie,  yet  it  was  both 
formidable  and  peculiar   for  the  age   in  which   it  was 

323 


THE  NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

accumulated.  ^^  It  seems  strange  to  read  in  the  will  of  an 
Indianian  (for  such  we  must  hold  Maclure  to  be)/'  writes 
Jacob  P.  Dunn,  in  an  interesting  monograph  on  the  his- 
tory of  the  Indiana  library  system,  "  the  disposition  not 
only  of  some  thirty  buildings  at  New  Harmony  and  about 
ten  thousand  acres  of  land  in  that  vicinity,  but  also  over 
a  million  reals  in  Spanish  securities,  his  house  No.  7  Calle 
del  Lobo,  in  Alicante;  his  Convent  of  St.  Gines  and  ac- 
compan3rLng  estate  of  ten  thousand  acres  in  Valencia;  his 
convent  and  estate  of  Grosmano,  near  Alicante;  his  estate 
of  Carman  de  Croix;  the  Valley  of  Murada;  forty-one 
thousand  francs  in  French  securities;  notes  and  mort- 
gages on  properties  scattered  from  Big  Lick  plantation 
in  Virginia  to  various  parts  of  England,  France,  and  Spain ; 
the  total  remaining  editions  of  Michaux's  Sylvia,  Condil- 
lac's  Logic,  and  Garner's  Dictionary;  more  than  one  hun- 
dred boxes  of  minerals,  prints,  etc.,  and  near  two  thousand 
copper  plates  of  engravings  and  illustrations  of  various 
kinds." 

The  will  by  which  Maclure  hoped  to  create  perma- 
nent libraries  for  the  working  people  of  his  native 
country  sets  forth,  with  its  maker's  characteristic  vehe- 
mence, hatred  for  the  non-productive  classes,  respect  for 
labor,  confidence  in  the  worthiness  of  the  common  people, 
and  an  abiding  faith  in  the  regenerating  virtue  of  edu- 
cation. "  The  power  and  influence  of  the  classes  who 
live  by  the  ignorance  of  the  millions  has  prevented  the 
spread  of  knowledge."  "  Industry  and  persevering  man- 
ual labor  puts  the  last  finish  to  every  species  of  prop- 
erty before  it  can  enter  into  the  value  of  either  indi- 
vidual or  national  wealth."  "  In  all  the  countries  I  have 
had  access  to  I  have  found  the  laborers  the  most  honest, 
upright,  and  useful  classes,  and  the  only  class  that  can 
make  a  good  use  of  knowledge  to  diminish  the  immor- 
ality, vice,  and  crime  producing  poverty,  ignorance,  mis- 
ery, and  wretchedness." 

324 


TEE   MACLURE   LIBRARY   MOVEMENT 

The  will  made  the  testator's  brother^  Alexander 
Maclure,  and  his  sister^  Anna  Maclure,  his  executors,  and 
directed  among  other  things  that  they  should  donate 
"  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars  to  any  club  or  society 
of  laborers  who  may  establish  in  any  part  of  the  United 
States  a  readinf'-  and  lecture-room  with  a  library  of  at 
least  one  hundred  volumes/'  The  instrument  proceeds 
to  define  "  laborers "  as  "  the  working  classes  who  labor 
with  their  hands  and  earn  their  living  in  the  sweat  of 
their  brows." 

Being  advised  that  the  trust  in  favor  of  these  libra- 
ries was  void  because  created  for  the  benefit  of  bodies 
not  in  existence,  Maclure's  brother  and  sister,  though 
generously  remembered  in  the  will,  proceeded  to  consume 
the  entire  estate,  of  which,  in  the  failure  of  the  provisions 
respecting  libraries,  they  were  the  sole  heirs. 

But  a  young  attorney  of  Posey  County,  A.  P.  Hovey, 
afterward  governor  of  Indiana,  believing  the  trust  to  be 
good  in  law,  fought  the  cause  of  the  libraries  through 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  which  established  the 
trust  and  made  Hovey  its  administrator.  In  1855  the 
estate  was  finally  converted  into  funds  and  the  distribu- 
tion began.  Organizations  styling  themselves  "  Working 
Men's  Institutes,"  "  Mechanics'  Associations,"  and  "  Lit- 
erary Societies "  pretended  at  least  to  comply  with  the  ^ 
provisions  of  the  will  respecting  both  the  personnel  of 
their  membership  and  the  collection  of  books.  To  these 
donations  of  five  hundred  dollars  each  were  made.  The 
following  table  gives  in  order  the  Maclure  libraries  thus 
established  in  Indiana,  the  location  being  given  by  county, 
with  the  name  of  the  town  following  in  parenthesis  when 
shown  by  the  records: 

Posey  Co.  (Mt.  Vernon);  Flo5^d  (New  Albany);  Owen 
(Gosport);  Parke  (Annapolis);  Posey  (Poseyville) ;  Hunt- 
ington (Huntington);  Spencer  (Liberty);  Grant  (Mar- 
ion) ;  Posey  (Farmersville) ;  DeKalb  (Vienna) ;  Switzer- 

325 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

land  (Yevay);   Owen  (Spencer);   Ohio   ( );  Henry 

(Knightstown) ;  Hancock  (Greenfield);  Wayne  (Center- 
ville) ;  Bartholomew  (Columbus) ;  Decatur  (Greens- 
burg)  ;  Lawrence  (Bedford)  ;  Fayette  ( Conner sville)  ; 
Posey  (Stewardsville) ;  Dearborn  (Aurora);  Gibson  (Bar- 
ren); Martin  (Mt.  Pleasant);  Adams  (Decatur);  St.  Jo- 
seph (South  Bend) ;  Fulton  (Eochester) ;  Knox  (Vin- 
cennes);  Boone  (Thorntown);  Elkhart  (Goshen);  White 
(Monticello) ;  Clay  (Brazil);  Miami  (Peru);  Greene  (Lin- 
ton); Gibson  (Princeton);  Hamilton  (Westfield);  Hen- 
dricks (Danville);  Crawford  (Leavenworth);  Fountain 
(Covington) ;  Tippecanoe  (Lafayette) ;  DeKalb  (Au- 
burn); Clinton  (Frankfort);  Blackford  (Hartford  City); 
Lagrange  (Lima);  Parke  (Rockville);  Whitley  (Columbia 
City);  Starke  (Knox);  Noble  (Albion);  Putnam  (Green- 
castle)  ;  Kosciusko  (Warsaw) ;  Greene  (Bloomfield)  ;  Jack- 
son ( )  ;  Porter  (Valparaiso) ;  Warrick  (Boonville) ; 

Lagrange  (Lagrange);  Jay  (Portland);  Martin  (Dover 
Hill) ;  Fountain  (Attica) ;  Pike  (Petersburg) ;  Benton 
(Oxford);  Posey  (Wadesville) ;  Jefferson  (South  Han- 
over); Sullivan  (Sullivan);  Gibson  (Snake  Run);  Hamil- 
ton (Noblesville) ;  Wabash  (Wabash);  St.  Joseph  (Misha- 
waka);  Monroe  (Bloomington) ;  Tippecanoe  (Farmers); 
Shelby  (Shelbyville) ;  Perry  (Cannelton);  Rush  (Rush- 
ville);  Madison  (Anderson);  Dearborn  (Lawrenceburg) ; 
Union  (Liberty);  Howard  (Kokomo);  Floyd  (ISTew  Al- 
bany); Orange  (Paoli);  Orange  (Lost  River);  Washington 
(Salem) ;  Jennings  (Vernon) ;  Johnson  (Franklin) ;  Dela- 
ware (Muncie);  Wayne  (Richmond);  Posey  (Cynthiana); 
Floyd  (New  Albany);  Union  (Cottage  Grove);  Morgan 
(Mooresville) ;  Harrison  (Corydon);  Clark  (Jefferson- 
ville);  Tipton  (Tipton);  Spencer  (Rockport);  Ripley 
(Versailles);  Scott  (Lexington);  Sullivan  (New  Leba- 
non); Randolph  (Winchester);  Allen  (Fort  Wayne); 
Franklin  (Springfield);  Posey  (New  Harmony);  Vander- 
burg  (Evansville)  ;  Clark  (Charlestown) ;  Morgan  (Mar- 

326 


THE   MACLURE   LIBRARY   MOVEMENT 

tinsville);  Henry  (IS'ewcastle) ;  Wayne  (Cambridge  City); 
Vermillion  (Eugene);  Jackson  (Seymour);  Putnam 
(Bainbridge) ;  Jefferson  (North  Madison);  Greene 
(Worthington) ;  Vigo  (Terre  Haute);  Sullivan  (Car- 
lisle); Crawford  (Alton);  Pulaski  (Winamac);  Carroll 
(Delphi) ;  Steuben  (Angola)  ;  Montgomery  (Crawfords- 
ville);  Clay  (Bowling  Green);  Gibson  (Patoka);  Mont- 
gomery   ( );     Gibson     (Marsh     Creek);    Franklin 

(Brookville) ;  Cass  (Logansport) ;  Boone  (Lebanon)  ; 
Lake  (Crown  Point) ;  Warren  (Williamsport)  ;  Vermillion 
(Newport);  Wells  (Bluffton);  Putnam  (Portland  MiUs); 
Elkhart  (Elkhart)  ;  Parke  (Bloomingdale)  ;  Posey  (Smith 
Township);  Gibson  (Black  Eiver);  Daviess  (Washing- 
ton); Brown  (Nashville);  Jasper  (Eensselaer) ;  Marshall 
(Plymouth);  Howard  (Poplar  Grove);  Johnson  (Edin- 
burg);  Laporte  (Michigan  City);  Jackson  (IJniontown) ; 
Vermillion  (Clinton);  Johnson  (Greenwood). 

One  hundred  and  forty-four  of  these  libraries  were 
inaugurated  in  Indiana  through  Maclure's  benefactions. 
Eighty-nine  out  of  ninety-two  counties  were  the  recipi- 
ents of  donations.  Sixteen  organizations  in  Illinois  were 
aided,  making  in  all  one  hundred  and  sixty  libraries  cre- 
ated by  the  distribution  of  eighty  thousand  dollars  under 
the  provisions  of  the  will. 

Though  it  suffered  many  vicissitudes,  the  New  Har- 
mony Working  Men's  Institute  has  been  the  only  suc- 
cessful and  permanent  library  established  through  the 
well-meant  but  misdirected  benevolence  of  the  first  Amer- 
ican geologist.  The  organization  realized  but  little  from 
the  aid  which  Maclure  had  planned  for  it.  Death  pre- 
vented an  endowment  from  his  hands.  The  London  book- 
seller against  whom  the  order  for  books  to  the  value  of 
one  thousand  dollars  was  drawn  became  a  bankrupt,  and 
the  order  was  only  partially  honored.  The  old  German 
church,  at  best  a  crude  library  home,  tumbled  into 
ruins  above  the  aspiring  head  of  the  "  model  library  and 

32'^ 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

institute/^  Nor  did  the  rejuvenated  organization  seek 
to  avail  itself  of  the  provisions  of  the  will.  But  while 
Maelure  failed  to  render  to  his  first  and  best  beloved 
library  the  aid  which  he  had  so  fondly  planned,  yet  he 
did  breathe  into  the  dead  institute  the  breath  of  life, 
turn  its  activities  into  the  direction  of  library  work,  and 
set  its  feet  in  the  paths  of  permanency.  For  from  the 
date  of  the  Maelure  grant  the  New  Harmony  Working 
Men^s  Library  has  maintained  a  continuous  existence. 
To  quote  the  words  of  Mr.  Dransfield,  the  present  libra- 
rian, it  "  has  grown  slowly  but  surely." 

Permanent  itself,  the  Working  Men's  Library,  on  the 
site  of  so  much  that  had  proved  visionary  and  futile, 
profited  by  the  demise  of  neighboring  organizations.  A 
Maclurean  Institute,  organized  under  the  provisions  of 
the  will  which  Hovey  had  so  faithfully  labored  to  estab- 
lish, after  a  two-years^  struggle  gave  up  the  ghost  and 
turned  its  books,  some  three  hundred  volumes,  over  to 
the  older  society.  At  the  close  of  the  war,  an  old  town- 
ship school  library  of  six  hundred  volumes  was  absorbed. 

Others  emulated  the  earlier  generosity  of  Maelure. 
In  the  year  1854  a  member  of  the  corporation,  limited 
by  the  terms  of  its  charter  to  twenty-six  members,  died 
leaving  one  thousand  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  books 
"  treating  of  science  and  fact."  Twenty  years  later,  out 
of  an  abundant  prosperity  and  in  grateful  remembrance 
of  the  early  struggles  of  their  society,  the  later  followers 
of  George  Eapp,  then  known  as  the  Economy  Society,  pur- 
chased the  dilapidated  old  church,  tore  it  down,  converted 
it  into  a  school  building,  which  they  presented  to  the  to^vn 
of  New  Harmony,  and  at  an  expense  of  two  thousand 
dollars  repaired  the  wing  owned  and  occupied  by  the  Work- 
ing Men's  Institute  and  Library. 

By  far  the  most  substantial  aid  received  by  this 
library,  however,  came  through  the  repeated  generosity 
of  Dr.   Murphy,   a   citizen   of   New   Harmony,   and  one 

328 


TEE   MACLURE   LIBRARY   MOVEMENT 

of  the  twenty-six  members  composing  the  library  cor- 
poration. Dr.  Murphy  was  a  waif^  born  in  the  city  of 
Cork,  Ireland,  in  December,  1813.  At  a  tender  age  he 
was  brought  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  by  a  brutal  man  who 
claimed  to  be  his  uncle.  Mistreatment  forced  him  to  run 
away.  His  wanderings  brought  him  barefooted  and 
starving  to  New  Harmony  shortly  after  the  inauguration 
of  Owen^s  new  social  order.  The  people  of  the  Com- 
mune received  him  with  open  arms,  supported  him,  and 
educated  him  in  the  model  schools  with  which  Maclure 
hoped  to  revolutionize  the  educational  systems  of  a  con- 
tinent, and  in  which  Murphy  was  taught  the  trade  of  a 
tailor. 

After  the  collapse  of  Owen^s  scheme  Murphy  plied 
his  trade  in  the  little  town  that  had  proved  a  haven  of 
refuge  to  him.  Unsuccessful  in  this  vocation  he  at- 
tempted farming,  in  which  he  likewise  failed.  Eeturning 
to  New  Harmony  he  engaged  in  the  general  clothing 
business,  in  which  his  financial  failure  was  complete. 
Leaving  New  Harmony  he  attended  a  medical  school  in 
Louisville,  graduating  with  distinction.  Eeturning  to 
the  scene  of  his  former  misfortunes  Murphy  entered 
upon  a  successful  career  as  a  general  practitioner.  For- 
tunate investments  added  to  the  lucrative  income  which 
he  received  from  his  professional  work,  until  he  and  his 
wife,  a  childless  couple,  had  amassed  a  considerable 
fortune. 

With  the  characteristic  loyalty  and  gratitude  of  his 
race  Murphy  sought  some  method  of  discharging  his 
debt  to  the  community  to  which  he  owed  so  much.  From 
its  earliest  revival  he  had  been  deeply  interested  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Working  Men^s  Library,  and  it  became  the 
object  of  his  generosity. 

In  1893  he  induced  the  Library  Society  to  sell  its 
old  quarters  and  assisted  it  to  erect  the  building  now 
occupied.    This  is  a  handsome  brick  structure  containing 

329 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

in  addition  to  its  excellent  library  quarters  a  large  audi- 
torium^ a  museum,  and  a  very  creditable  art  gallery.  Dr. 
Murphy  made  contributions  of  books  and  specimens  for 
the  museum  and  filled  the  art  gallery  with  costly  paintings 
purchased  in  Italy.  In  1899  he  made  a  further  donation 
of  forty-five  thousand  dollars.  In  1900  the  gift  was  in- 
creased to  seventy-six,  thousand  dollars.  At  his  death,  in 
December,  1900,  the  sum  total  was  increased  to  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-five  thousand  dollars. 

The  present  estimated  wealth  of  the  society  is  two  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  from  which  is  derived  an  annual 
income  of  six  thousand  dollars.  Two  thousand  dollars  per 
year  is  spent  for  books  and  periodicals,  and  a  lecture 
course  costing  twelve  hundred  dollars  is  offered  each  win- 
ter. From  four  hundred  and  twenty-five  volumes  in  1847, 
the  number  upon  the  open  shelves  of  the  library  has  grown 
to  more  than  seventeen  thousand,  to  which  the  yearly  ad- 
ditions are  in  excess  of  twelve  hundred  books.  No  other 
towTi  of  even  double  the  same  population  can  boast  such 
library  facilities  as  can  the  site  where  the  stolid  Rappites 
toiled  and  dozed  away  their  narrow  lives  in  ignorant  con- 
tentment. The  number  of  books  per  capita  in  the  New 
Harmony  library  is  probably  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  public  library.  Better  still,  the  circulation  per 
capita  exceeds  that  of  all  competitors.  Best  of  all,  it  is 
claimed  that  the  per  cent  of  illiteracy  on  the  site  of  the 
first  great  Pestalozzian  school  is  less  than  at  any  other 
point  in  the  United  States. 

Two  features  of  the  New  Harmony  library  merit  spe- 
cial commendation.  One  is  the  rare  good  judgment  con- 
stantly displayed  in  the  purchase  of  new  books.  Mr. 
Carnegie  advises  that  the  novel  of  the  hour  be  sub- 
jected to  a  three-years^  test  at  the  hands  of  the  reading 
public  before  it  is  given  recognition  by  a  free  library. 
The  book  committee  of  the  sole  surviving  institution 
founded  by  the  earlier  Carnegie  has  obeyed  this  injunc- 

330 


[f  TEE   MAC  LUBE   LIBRARY   MOVEMENT 


■v  tion  almost  to  the  very  letter.  The  shelves  of  no  public 
':  library  are  freer  from  the  worthless  fiction  by  which, 
, :  in  an  effort  to  pander  to  the  popular  clamor,  the  intel- 
•  lectual  standard  of  too  many  communities  has  been  low- 
i  ered  and  the  literary  tastes  of  too  many  readers  perverted. 
jk  The  other  commendable  feature  of  the  Working  Men's 
■  Institute  is  the  extraordinary  care  and  diligence  which, 
^  for  many  years,  has  been  exercised  in  the  collection  and 
preservation  of  local  history  material.  The  New  Moral 
World  was  not  only  the  most  ambitious  communistic  ex- 
periment which  the  world  has  yet  witnessed,  but  it  was 
also  the  effort  to  found  an  ideal  social  order  which  has 
bequeathed  to  posterity  the  most  complete  record  of  its  own 
proceedings.  The  older  Owen  and  his  followers  believed 
that  the  experiments  which  they  were  conducting  on  the 
Wabash  would  be  imitated  by  other  community  groups, 
and  ultimately  lead  to  the  peaceful  revolution  of  society. 
Hence  a  faithful  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
parent  community  must  be  kept,  both  because  of  the 
success  and  fame  that  was  destined  to  attend  its  philan- 
thropic efforts,  and  because  it  was  to  serve  as  a  prototype 
and  guide  for  other  communities  certain  to  follow  in  its 
wake.  The  records  of  no  municipality  of  these  latter  days 
surpass  in  fulness  and  accuracy  those  which  the  semi- 
visionary,  semipractical  citizens  of  The  New  Moral  World 
made  for  their  Utopia. 

These  records  ultimately  became  the  property  of  the 
Working  Men's  Institute.  From  the  day  on  which  Ma- 
clure  breathed  into  the  defunct  organization  a  new  spark 
of  life,  its  chief  pleasure  and  pride  has  been  to  preserve 
and  to  augment  them.  Every  publication,  every  news- 
paper, every  scrap  of  material  treating  of  any  phase  of 
the  problems  which  The  New  Moral  World  sought  to 
solve,  or  throwing  additional  light  upon  any  phase  of  the 
Eapp  and  Owen  regimes,  have  been  carefully  culled  and 
filed.    The  very  ends  of  the  earth  have  been  searched  for 

331 


TEE  NEW   HAR3I0NY  MOVEMENT 

additional  facts  concerning  the  unfortunate  social  ventures 
of  which  the  New  Harmony  library  has  constituted  itself 
the  historian.  This  labor  of  love  has  widened  until  it  has 
included  within  its  scope  the  traditions  and  early  struggles 
of  the  county  of  which  the  site  of  the  labors  of  the  Rapp- 
ites  and  Owenites  was  formerly  the  county  seat.  To-day 
the  library  is  a  repository  of  valuable  sociological  and  his- 
torical material^  much  of  which  can  not  be  duplicated 
elsewhere.  'No  other  known  library  approaches  it  in  the 
completeness  of  its  local  history  collection.  Valuable  both 
in  quantity  and  quality  as  are  the  general  publications 
upon  its  shelves,  by  far  the  most  precious  asset,  measured 
from  any  standpoint  which  this  library  possesses,  is  the 
record  of  memorable  early  days  in  the  Pocket,  which  have 
been  so  faithfully  and  intelligently  compiled,  especially 
during  the  regime  of  the  present  secretary  of  the  Work- 
ing Men's  Institute,  Mr.  Arthur  Dransfield. 

This  is  a  feature  of  library  work  which  every  similar 
institution  would  do  well  to  emulate.  Eeminiscences  of 
the  rapidly  disappearing  pioneer,  records  yellow  with 
age,  old  and  current  newspaper  files,  publications  and 
contributions  of  every  type  reciting  any  fact  or  achieve- 
ment of  the  community  or  its  citizenship — all  these 
should  be  gathered  and  preserved  in  some  archive.  If 
need  be,  money  should  be  appropriated  out  of  the  com- 
mon treasury  of  the  library  to  further  this  worthy  duty. 
No  similar  amount  spent  for  any  other  given  feature  of 
the  work  will  confer  as  much  ultimate  value  and  benefit 
upon  the  institution  and  its  patrons.  Where  the  vicinity 
is  not  blessed  with  a  public  library,  or,  though  so  blessed, 
the  library  fails  to  rise  to  the  mark  of  its  high  calling 
as  local  historian,  then  some  other  local  group  or  organ- 
ization should  undertake  the  task.  And  who  so  compe- 
tent to  discharge  this  necessary  labor  of  love  as  the  teach- 
ers, through  their  township  and  county  organizations? 

How  different  the  fate   of  the  Maclurean  libraries 

332 


THE   MACLUBE   LIBRARY   MOVEMENT 

created  by  the  will !  "  There  was  nothing  in  their  forma- 
tion to  insure  and  but  little  to  encourage  perpetuity/^ 
The  preliminary  library  of  one  hundred  books  collected 
as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  bestowal  of  the  testator's 
bounty  usually  consisted  of  old  books  of  all  sorts,  hastily 
gathered  together  and  possessing  neither  value  nor  dura- 
bility. The  books  purchased  through  Maclure's  gener- 
osity were  almost  exclusively  standard  works  of  a  scien- 
tific and  technical  character,  designed  for  a  limited 
coterie  of  readers,  and  possessing  little  or  no  interest  for 
the  majority  of  the  very  class  which  their  donor  sought 
to  reach.  For  this  strange  collection  of  books  there  was 
neither  a  competent  custodian  nor  suitable  quarters.  What, 
with  lack  of  supervision  and  rough  usage,  they  melted 
away.  And  there  was  neither  taxation  nor  endowment, 
a  testator  nor  a  "  good  angel "  in  the  flesh  to  replace  them ! 
What  books  survived  the  perilous  ordeal  of  a  brief  circu- 
lation were  in  many  instances  divided  among  the  remain- 
ing members  and  became  their  individual  properly. 

In  1854,  under  the  provisions  of  a  law  for  which 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  stood  sponsor,  township  libraries  were 
organized  by  the  State  of  Indiana.  These,  separate  and 
independent  from  the  Maclure  libraries,  gradually  ab- 
sorbed such  of  the  latter  as  had  remained  intact.  Here 
the  earlier  Carnegie  planned  better  than  he  knew;  for 
the  books  by  which  his  will  so  pathetically  sought  to 
found  libraries  for  the  benefit  of  a  distinct  class  in 
society,  became  the  nucleus  of  many  of  the  free  public 
libraries  of  township  and  city  which,  with  their  doors 
wide  flung  to  rich  and  poor,  constitute  such  a  proud 
feature  of  American  life  to-day. 

So  rapidly,  however,  did  the  Maclure  books  disappear 
that,  as  early  as  1890,  the  special  reports  made  by  the 
county  superintendents  of  schools  on  the  various  libraries 
of  the  several  counties  of  the  commonwealth  mention 
but  two  Maclure  libraries  in  addition  to  the  formidable 

333 


TEE   NE\Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

one  which  the  citizens  of  New  Harmony  have  main- 
tained so  creditably.  These  are  located  at  Williamsport, 
Warren  County,  and  Princeton,  Gibson  County.  "  At 
Williamsport  one  hundred  and  forty-five  volumes  of  a 
Maclure  library  are  deposited  in  the  high-school  build- 
ing, and  the  public  is  privileged  to  use  them."  At 
Princeton  an  old  collection  of  books  purchased  by  a  gift 
which  Hovey  made  possible,  initiated  the  present  town 
library  of  three  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventy-three 
volumes. 

It  is  possible  that  a  thorough  search  would  reveal 
the  presence  of  a  few  Maclure  books  in  other  libraries. 
The  remainder  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  collections 
have  become  less  than  a  tradition.  Outside  of  the  town 
and  county  in  which  he  exercised  his  greatest  philan- 
thropy the  name  of  Maclure  is  known  to  but  few  of  the 
most  intelligent  citizens  of  his  adopted  State.  "  Where 
known,  it  is  usually  connected  with  a  vague  recollection 
of  some  sort  of  library  of  which  very  little  knowledge 
is  had." 

The  New  Harmony  library  is  a  monument  of  which 
the  great  Scotch  ironmaster,  were  he  the  founder,  might 
well  be  proud.  If  the  life  of  the  earlier  Carnegie  has 
accomplished  no  other  good  he  has  not  lived  in  vain,  for 
in  the  Working  Men's  Institute  his  philanthropic  efforts 
have  reaped  a  posthumous  success  granted  to  the  labors  of 
but  few  men.  It  is  difficult  to  assign  to  Maclure's  other 
benevolent  experiments  their  true  place  and  worth. 
Measured  by  their  permanency,  failure  must  be  writ  in 
large  letters  across  the  face  of  all  of  them,  from  the  Pesta- 
lozzian  School  to  the^remotest  Maclurean  institute.  Meas- 
ured by  their  influence  upon  men  and  institutions,  success 
must  be  written  across  the  face  of  his  benevolence ;  for  the 
far-reaching  results  radiating  in  every  direction  from 
them,  furthered  better  than  he  had  hoped,  and  in  ways 
which  he  had  not  anticipated,  the  uplift  of  humanity. 

334 


THE  MACLURE  LIBRARY  MOVEMENT 

Measured  by  the  spirit  which  prompted  them,  their  un- 
selfishness entitles  the  "  Father  of  American  Geology  "  to 
an  honored  place  in  the  long  list  of  benefactors  who  have 
dedicated  their  time  and  their  substance  to  the  better- 
ment of  men. 


335 


CHAPTEE    XXV 

ROBERT     DALE     OWEN" 

"  Although  Owen  failed  to  make  his  community  successful,  his 
opinions  spread  far  and  wide.  The  courts  of  law,  the  halls  of  legisla- 
tion, and  the  family  government  have  been  modified  and  influenced  by 
the  opinions  taught  by  Mr,  Owen  in  the  early  days  of  New  Harmony, 
and  afterward  promulgated  by  his  son,  Robert  Dale  Owen." 

— George  Flowek. 

EoBERT  Dale  Owen,  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
four  talented  sons  of  Eobert  Owen,  first  saw  the  light  of 
day  in  Glasgow,  Scotland,  November  7,  1801.  Born  to 
wealth,  every  possible  educational  advantage  was  thrust 
upon  him  by  his  father.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  sent 
to  Fellenberg's  School  at  Hofwyl,  where,  like  William 
Maclure,  he  became  an  enthusiastic  believer  in  the  Pesta- 
lozzian  creed.  When  he  returned  to  Scotland  Eobert  Dale 
entered  with  hearty  and  intelligent  sympathy  into  his 
father's  social  and  educational  experiment  at  New  Lan- 
ark. His  influence  cast  into  the  scale  determined  the 
purchase  of  Harmonic  from  the  Eappites.  In  that  golden 
age  on  the  Wabash,  as  editor,  teacher,  or  assistant  to  his 
illustrious  father  in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Commune,  he  played  a  conspicuous  and  creditable  part. 

Early  in  life  Eobert  Dale  Owen  began  the  literary  la- 
bors that  won  for  him  fame  little  less  than  that  achieved 
as  a  statesman.  His  first  production  was  a  play  called 
Pocahontas,  which  was  performed  at  New  Harmony  by 
the  Thespian  Society.  This  society  was  formed  in  1828, 
and  continued  as  an  organization  for  nearly  fifty  years, 

336 


m^ 


-\   1 


EGBERT  DALE  OWEN. 
September,  1875. 


THE  LIBRARY  i 

OF  THE  ; 

UKIYERSITY  Of  ILLINOIS  ^ 


ROBERT  DALE   OWEN 

in  that  time  graduating  a  large  number  of  young  people  to 
the  professional  stage.  The  scenery  for  the  plays  produced 
by  this  society  was  for  many  years  painted  by  Charles 
A.  Lesueur. 

Following  Frances  Wright's  lecturing  tour  in  1828, 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  became  associated  with  her  in  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Free  Enquirer,  which  was  removed  to  Xew 
York  City.  In  this  journal  these  two  brilliant  editorial 
writers  advocated  many  of  the  social  and  educational  re- 
forms which  had  been  exploited  at  New  Harmony.  One 
outcome  of  their  agitation  was  a  political  movement  in 
the  State  of  I^ew  York,  organized  by  George  H.  and  Fred- 
erick W.  Evans,  two  of  their  converts.  As  the  result  of 
the  efforts  of  the  Evans  brothers  a  working  men's  party 
was  formed,  demanding,  among  other  things,  "  the  aboli- 
tion of  chattel  slavery  and  wage  slavery.'^  In  1830  a  con- 
vention was  held  in  Syracuse  and  Ezekiel  Williams  was 
nominated  for  governor.  He  received  nearly  three  thou- 
sand votes,  and  by  a  fusion  the  party  elected  one  member 
of  the  legislature.  It  was  called  the  "  Fanny  Wright 
party  "  by  its  opponents. 

The  agitation  extended  to  Massachusetts,  and  numberell 
Edward  Everett  among  its  supporters.  The  organization 
was  finally  merged  into  the  "  Locof  oco ''  party,  and  had  no 
small  influence  in  developing  the  antislavery  movement. 
All  over  the  country  organizations,  composed  largely  of 
working  men  advocating  the  principles  promulgated  by  the 
Free  Enquirers,  were  formed,  marking  the  first  organized 
participation  of  working  men  in  x4merican  politics.  The 
movement  was,  however,  soon  overshadowed  by  the  great 
issues  which  divided  the  country  into  two  hostile  camps, 
and  ultimately  were  settled  by  the  arbitrament  of  war. 

In  1836  Eobert  Dale  Owen  entered  Indiana  politics  as 
a  member  of  the  State  legislature.  In  the  same  year  he 
was  nominated  as  a  Van  Buren  elector  and  went  upon 
the  stump  in  Indiana  to  become  a  political  orator  of  wide 

23  337 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

renown.  His  speeches  were  models  of  logic  and  free  from 
the  taint  of  personal  abuse. 

In  1842  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  was  returned 
in  1844,  but  in  1846  was  defeated.  He  impressed  himself 
upon  the  leaders  of  his  party  in  Congress  as  a  man  of 
unusual  ability,  and  his  advanced  views  exercised  a  marked 
influence  in  determining  the  trend  of  Democratic  thought 
on  public  questions.  While  in  Congress  he  originated  and 
introduced  the  bill  providing  for  the  application  of  the 
neglected  Smithson  bequest  to  the  founding  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution.  This  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Owen 
on  December  14,  1845,  and  on  the  same  day  it  was  re- 
ferred to  a  select  committee  of  which  the  distinguished 
Indianian  was  a  chairman.  On  February  28,  1846,  the  bill 
was  reported  to  the  House  by  him,  and  on  April  2  2d  it  was 
taken  up  by  the  Committee  of  the  Whole.  During  the  same 
session  it  was  passed  by  both  the  House  and  Senate. 

In  a  speech  of  characteristic  force  Mr.  Owen  advocated 
the  passage  of  the  bill,  outlining  the  nature  of  the  work 
which  it  was  intended  this  institution  should  undertake, 
and  which  it  is  still  pursuing.  At  this  time  it  had  been 
ten  years  since  the  United  States  Government  accepted  the 
bequest  of  Smithson,  and  numerous  suggestions  as  to  the 
manner  of  its  application  had  come  to  naught. 

Mr.  Owen  referred  to  the  various  plans  proposed  by 
distinguished  scholars  upon  whom  the  President  had  called 
for  advice.  Professor  Wajdand  suggested  the  founding  of 
a  university  exclusively  for  higher  research — an  institution 
something  like  that  for  which  Mr.  Carnegie  has  made  pro- 
vision at  Washington  by  a  gift  of  ten  million  dollars.  A  bill 
in  line  with  this  suggestion  was  introduced  in  the  Senate, 
but  was  laid  on  the  table.  Dr.  Cooper  proposed  an  institu- 
tion for  original  research  in  higher  mathematics,  chemistry, 
and  agriculture.  Eichard  Eush  advocated  the  establishment 
of  a  college  to  undertake  about  the  same  work  now  being 
done  by  the  department  of  agriculture,  his  plans  including 

338 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

buildings  and  grounds  of  sufficient  size  to  make  possible 
the  propagation  of  seeds  for  general  distribution,  and  the 
delivery  and  publication  of  courses  of  lectures  on  scientific 
topics  of  popular  interest.  John  Quincy  Adams  proposed 
a  Government  astronomical  observatory — the  Government 
now  maintains  one  at  Washington.  Senator  Choate,  of 
Massachusetts,  advocated  the  establishment  of  a  library  to 
rank  with  the  largest  institutions  of  similar  character  in 
the  Old  World — an  idea  which  has  in  later  years  been  de- 
veloped in  the  Library  of  Congress.  It  is  a  rather  re- 
markable fact,  indeed,  that  every  one  of  these  suggestions 
has  been  carried  out  by  the  Government. 

As  an  associate  of  Mr.  Owen's  on  the  select  committee 
declared,  the  bill  providing  for  the  institution  was  "  an 
anthology  from  all  the  plans  submitted,  though  possessing 
valuable  original  features,  the  credit  of  which  belongs  to 
the  chairman  of  the  committee,  Mr.  Owen.''  Mr.  Owen's 
idea  was  to  make  the  institution  of  value  not  merely  to  a 
few  scholars  but  to  the  whole  people,  developing  fully 
Smithson's  desire  that  it  should  be  devoted  to  "  the  diffu- 
sion of  learning." 

In  view  of  the  lifetime  of  effort  which  Mr.  Owen  de- 
voted to  the  advocacy  of  the  common-school  idea,  it  is  not 
strange  that  one  of  his  plans,  which  has  never  been  de- 
veloped, anticipated  the  establishment  of  a  national  nor- 
mal school  for  the  training  of  teachers  for  State  normal 
schools,  two  of  which  had  alreadv  been  founded  in  the 
United  States.  "I  hold  it  to  be  a  democratic  dutv,"  he 
said,  "  to  elevate  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability  the  character 
of  our  common-school  education." 

The  Smithsonian  building  is  said  to  represent  peculiar 
ideas  of  architecture  held  by  Eobert  Dale  Owen  and  his 
brother,  David  Dale  Owen,  who  was  United  States  geologist 
when  the  structure  was  erected.  Eobert  Dale  Owen  became 
a  member  of  the  first  board  of  regents  of  the  Smithsonian, 
and  was  influential  in  determining  the  nature  of  its  future 

339 


THE  NEW  HA2M0NY  MOVEMENT 

work,  concerning  which  there  was  much  discussion  among 
American  scientists  of  that  period. 

Creditable  as  was  his  all  too  brief  congressional  serv- 
ice, Mr.  Owen's  well-merited  reputation  for  unselfish  and 
far-seeing  statesmanship  must  rest  upon  his  action  as  a 
member  of  the  lower  house  in  the  Indiana  Legislature  dur- 
ing the  twenty-second  and  twenty-third  assemblies;  as  a 
member  of  the  Indiana  Constitutional  Convention  of  1850, 
and  as  a  member  of  the  State  legislature  which  met  in  the 
capital  city  of  the  Hoosier  State  close  upon  the  heels  of 
the  newly  adopted  constitution. 

Elected  a  member  of  the  Indiana  Constitutional  Con- 
vention in  1850,  he  entered  upon  the  period  of  his  great- 
est usefulness,  for  at  last  there  arrived  the  opportunity  for 
writing  into  law  some  of  the  advanced  doctrines  for  which 
his  father  stood,  and  which  the  younger  Owen  had  been 
eloquently  and  forcibly  advocating  during  all  the  years 
succeeding  the  collapse  of  the  ISTew  Harmony  communities. 
In  that  body,  as  Mr.  John  Holliday  says,  "  He  was  beyond 
all  comparison  the  most  laborious,  fertile,  and  efficient 
member.  The  law  reforms  and  the  provisions  for  woman's 
rights  and  free  schools  were  especially  his  work,  and  leave 
upon  our  statute-books  the  ineffaceable  marks  of  his 
father's  inculcations,  modified  and  strengthened  by  his  own 
talent  and  observation." 

ISTor  could  Eobert  Dale  Owen  be  other  than  a  valiant 
fighter  for  free  schools  and  be  loyal  to  his  father,  to 
William  Maclure,  and  The  New  Moral  World.  Sturdy  as 
was  his  defense  of  the  property  and  social  rights  which 
he  believed  ought  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  women  of  a  nine- 
teenth-century civilizatioif,  he  was,  if  anything,  more  en- 
thusiastic and  certainly  more  successful  in  his  efforts  to 
consummate  on  Indiana  and  neighboring  soil  a  public- 
school  system  that  should  afford  to  the  children  of  all 
classes  an  education  "  without  money  and  without  price." 
His  writings  and  public  utterances  are  replete  with  brave 

340 


ROBERT   DALE   OWEN 

and  wise  arguments  favoring  the  establishment  of  schools 
"  free  and  universal "  "  to  the  son  of  the  poorest  farmer  as 
to  the  son  of  the  chief  mayor."  It  is  difficult  to  cull  from 
his  declarations  concerning  the  free  public  school  those 
which  all  would  agree  upon  as  being  the  wisest — the  most 
striking  and  prophetic. 

When  the  New  Harmony  Gazette,  rescued  from  the  ruin 
of  the  "  social  system/^  became  the  Free  Enquirer,  Eobert 
Dale  Owen,  as  editor-in-chief  of  the  rejuvenated  publica- 
tion, employed  its  columns  as  zealously  in  the  cause  of 
free  schools  as  he  did  in  the  interest  of  the  peculiar  social 
and  religious  views  with  which  he  and  Frances  Wright 
astonished  and  angered  the  country. 

Detecting  in  the  educational  legislation  of  the  newly 
formed  States  of  the  Middle  West  a  tendency  to  discrim- 
inate against  the  children  of  the  ignorant  and  the  vicious, 
Mr.  Owen  in  the  Free  Enquirer,  hastened  to  declare  that 
'^  all  poverty  is  not  caused  by  misconduct.  Many  men  are 
poor  because  they  are  more  scrupulous  than  their  neigh- 
bors; such  poverty  is  honorable;  and  if  the  father's  worth 
is  to  be  the  measure  of  the  son's  deserts,  the  child  of  such 
a  poor  man  merits  as  good,  nay,  a  much  better  education 
than  the  son  of  the  fortunate  speculator  whose  coffers 
groan  under  a  half  million.  But  we  deny  the  position  that 
because  the  parent  is  worthless  the  child  ought  to  be  neg- 
lected. The  child  of  the  greatest  criminal  in  the  Republic 
has  as  good  a  right  to  a  rational  education  as  that  of  the 
most  disinterested  patriot.  Does  a  child  make  its  parents  or 
choose  them  ?  According  to  what  principles  of  justice  then 
can  it  be  punished  with  ignorance  for  their  crimes  ?  " 

Just  before  the  Constitutional  Convention  Mr.  Owen  but 
voiced  the  feeling  of  the  people  of  his  adopted  State  when 
he  declared  its  educational  organization  to  be  chaotic  and 
its  schools  far  behind  other  and  younger  Western  States  in 
efficiency.  In  urging  the  necessity  of  a  constitutional  pro- 
vision under  which  the  school  system  might  be  properly 

341 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

reorganized,  he  declared  a  truth  which  it  has  required 
twenty  centuries  to  impress  upon  a  small  portion  of  the 
race: 

"  We  hold  that  there  is  no  object  of  greater  magnitude 
within  the  whole  range  of  legislation,  no  more  imperative 
demand  for  public  revenue  than  the  establishment  of  com- 
petent schools.  We  hold  that,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
nothing  can  be  better  entitled  to  a  share  of  the  public  rev- 
enue than  that  from  which  private  and  public  wealth  de- 
rive all  their  value  and  security.  In  short,  our  schools  are 
the  very  foundation  upon  which  rest  the  peace,  good  order, 
and  prosperity  of  society.^' 

Though  it  denied  the  efficiency,  as  an  instrument  of 
social  regeneration,  of  the  very  religion  to  which  his  tal- 
ented daughter  declares  that  Mr.  Owen  turned  in  expectant 
faith  in  his  failing  years,  the  creed  which  he  proclaimed 
in  the  lusty  days  of  his  young  manhood  was  noteworthy, 
for  it  breathed  in  every  line  a  stirring  confidence  in  the 
efficiency,  as  an  agent  of  social  redemption,  of  a  national 
system  of  education,  which  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century 
through  the  editorial  columns  of  the  Free  Enquirer  he 
persistently  urged  upon  the  American  people.  That  creed 
follows : 

I  believe  in  a  National  System  of  Equal,  Republican,  Pro- 
tective, Practical  Education,  the  sole  regenerator  of  a  profli- 
gate age  and  the  only  redeemer  of  our  suffering  country  from 
the  equal  curses  of  chilling  poverty  and  corrupting  riches,  of 
gnawing  want  and  destroying  debauchery,  of  blind  ignorance 
and  of  unprincipled  intrigue. 

By  this,  my  creed,  I  will  live.  By  my  consistency  or  in- 
consistency with  this,   my  professed  belief,    I  claim  to  be 

judged.     By  it,  I  will  stand  or  fall. 

Robert  Dale  Owen. 

During  his  first  term  as  a  member  of  the  Indiana  Leg- 
islature, on  William  StillwelFs  farm,  three  miles  east  of 
New  Harmon}^,  he  spoke  from  the  bed  of  a  rude  farm 

34^ 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

wagon  drawn  within  sight  of  the  grounds  upon  which  the 
farmers  of  the  vicinity  had  at  their  own  expense  just  com- 
pleted the  building  of  a  small  one-room  school.  Amid 
these  picturesque  surroundings  Mr.  Owen  terminated  his 
address  with  this  eloquent  tribute  to  the  country  school- 
house  : 

"  Do  you  ask  me  what  manner  of  temple  these  Temples 
of  Liberty  may  be?  There,  behind  those  trees,  recently 
erected  by  the  citizens  of  this  very  neighborhood  and  soon 
to  be  open  and  filled  with  those  who  when  we  are  gone 
are  to  maintain  or  to  forfeit  the  inheritance  of  their 
fathers — there  is  one  of  them.  You  will  find  no  polished 
marble,  no  massive  pillars  curiously  carved,  none  of  the 
ornaments  of  architecture  or  luxuries  of  taste.  That  Tem- 
ple of  Freedom  is  but  an  humble  schoolhouse.  And  a 
country  schoolhouse,  men  will  say,  is  but  a  small  matter. 
Aye,  so  also  is  a  cool  drink  from  the  spring  but  a  small 
matter,  yet  it  has  saved  human  life  ere  now !  And  so  is  a 
summer  shower  a  small  matter,  yet  without  it  would  our 
grain  grow  or  our  corn  ripen?  And  what  a  draft  of 
pure  water  is  to  the  traveler  dying  of  thirst,  or  a  refresh- 
ing shower  to  the  ground  parched  with  drought,  that  is 
Education  to  Liberty. 

"  Yes,  in  such  unpretending  institutions  as  the  coun- 
try schoolhouse  are  the  liberties  of  our  great  Eepublic 
preserved  and  protected.  If  not  there,  they  can  find  pro- 
tection nowhere.  Just  in  proportion  as  such  buildings 
abound  among  us  and  are  managed  by  enlightened  teach- 
ers and  filled  by  willing  scholars — just  in  proportion  are 
our  liberties  secured  and  our  independence  established  on 
a  rock  foundation.  Any  other  foundation  apart  from  the 
intelligence  of  the  people  is  but  of  sand,  and  if  thereupon 
the  national  edifice  be  founded  the  storms  of  party  and 
the  floods  of  misrule  will  beat  upon  that  edifice  and  great 
will  be  the  fall  thereof.  .  .  .  If  we  neglect  even  so 
small  a  matter  as  common  schools,  let  us  not  complain  of 

343 


THE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

the  unhappy  consequences.  We  shall  have  brought  them 
all  upon  ourselves. 

"  The  mind  of  a  child  is  like  the  rich  land  before  us. 
Something  that  land  must  produce.  Rank  and  luxurious 
growth  must  be  of  tangled  weeds  and  bushes  if  it  be  neg- 
lected and  thrown  open,  but  of  the  best  fruits  of  the  earth 
if  it  be  carefully  fenced  and  diligently  cultivated.  It  is 
not  neglected.  See,  it  has  been  carefully  tilled.  The 
promise  of  an  abundant  harvest  is  all  over  it.  And  shall 
those  fields  of  far  richer  promise,  of  far  more  valuable 
harvest — the  fields  of  intellect — shall  they  be  left  to  run 
to  waste,  unprotected,  uncultivated,  forsaken? 

"  Every  parent  will  answer,  No.  Let  him  do  more  than 
so  answer.  Let  him  act  as  well  as  resolve.  If  there  be  no 
school  in  his  neighborhood,  let  him  use  his  best  exertions  to 
establish  one.  If  he  succeed  and  procure  a  teacher,  his 
labor  will  not  be  in  vain.  It  will  return  to  him  a  hun- 
dredfold.^' 

In  legislative  hall  and  Constitutional  Convention  Eob- 
ert  Dale  Owen's  utterances  and  services  in  the  cause  of 
free  schools  were  no  less  wise  and  brilliant. 

Mr.  Owen  was  a  member  of  the  lower  house  in  the 
Indiana  legislature,  session  of  1838,  representing  the 
county  of  Posey.  One  of  the  chief  causes  of  contention 
during  this  session  was  the  Surplus  Revenue  Fund  of  the 
common  schools.  In  1836  the  National  Treasury  had  a 
very  large  surplus.  As  there  was  no  national  debt  to  be 
discharged.  Congress  determined  to  distribute  a  large  part 
of  this  surplus  among  the  several  States  of  the  Union,  ac- 
cording to  the  population  of  each.  The  share  of  Indiana 
amounted  to  $806,254.  The  legislature  of  1837  set  apart 
$573,502.96  of  this  sum  for  the  use  of  the  common  schools 
and  made  it  a  part  of  the  permanent  fund  under  the  title 
"  Surplus  Revenue  Fund." 

A  formidable  attempt  was  made  during  the  legislative 
session  of  1839  to  divert  this  Surplus  Revenue  Fund  from 

344 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

the  Common  School  Fund  in  which  the  Acts  of  1837  had 
placed  it^  and  in  which  it  would  be  used  as  an  interest- 
bearing  principal  for  the  benefit  of  the  schools  of  the  State, 
into  an  Internal  Improvement  Fund,  where  it  would  be 
dissipated  in  the  construction  of  canals  and  the  deepening 
of  rivers.  Worthy  and  necessary  as  are  internal  improve- 
ments, the  friends  of  the  public  schools  regarded  the  prop- 
osition to  divert  any  portion  of  the  Common  School  Fund 
of  the  State  to  any  purpose,  however  meritorious,  as  but 
the  entering  wedge  in  a  series  of  assaults  by  which  the 
fund  which  has  made  the  Indiana  educational  system  pos- 
sible would  be  dissipated. 

When  the  overzealous  champions  of  the  internal  im- 
provement program  introduced  a  "Bill  Transferring  the 
First  and  Second  Instalments  of  the  Surplus  Eevenue 
from  Common  Schools  to  Internal  Improvements,"  the 
partizans  of  the  free  public-school  system  of  the  State 
fought  it  with  all  the  vigor  and  bitterness  of  which  they 
were  capable,  both  because  it  proposed  to  reduce  the  Com- 
mon School  Fund,  which  they  regarded  as  the  most 
precious  asset  possessed  by  the  Commonwealth,  and  because 
it  established  a  dangerous  precedent  for  the  future. 

None  fought  this  assault  upon  the  resources  of  the 
common  schools  of  his  adopted  State  with  such  skill  and 
earnestness  as  the  representative  from  Posey.  When  it 
appeared  that  the  assault  would  be  successful,  Owen,  in 
what  was  practically  his  maiden  effort  as  a  legislator,  made 
a  speech  which  stemmed  the  tide,  defeated  the  proposition 
to  divert  the  Surplus  Eevenue,  hurled  confusion  into  the 
ranks  of  the  enemies  of  free  schools,  and  perpetuated  the 
Common  School  Fund  of  Indiana.     He  said: 

"  The  gentleman  from  Wayne  says  that  if  this  bill  were 
well  explained  and  fully  understood  among  the  people  it 
would  be  popular. 

"  Strange,  most  strange  and  baseless  doctrine !  If  the 
people  understood  it !    Ah,  sir,  if  the  people  truly  under- 

345 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

stood  it — if  they  knew  and  felt  what  their  children  gain 
when  they  receive  a  liberal  education  and  what  they  lose 
when  it  is  denied  them — they  would  rise  up,  yes,  in  mass, 
against  a  law  so  unjust,  so  unrepublican,  so  subversive  of 
knowledge  and  equality  as  this ! 

"  Yes,  sir,  talk  of  democracy  and  equality !  They  are 
idle,  powerless  words  without  education  to  give  them  sub- 
stance and  spirit. 

"  In  the  mind  is  the  true  seat  of  inequality.  If  the 
mental  resources  of  one  man  be  abundant  and  of  his  neigh- 
bor be  scanty,  of  small  avail  is  it  that  their  purses  are  of 
equal  length.  Mind  commands  and  ever  has  commanded 
both  wealth  and  power. 

'^  If  I  believe,  as  I  do  believe,  that  I  can  procure  for 
my  children  advantages  beyond  those  that  may  fall  to  the 
lot  of  some  others  whose  parents  happen  to  be  somewhat 
less  favored  by  fortune  than  myself,  it  is  not  because  I 
may  chance  to  have  a  few  extra  dollars  to  leave  them — for 
the  advantage  of  wealth  to  young  people  just  starting  in 
the  world  is  very  problematical — but  it  is  that  I  have  the 
same  means  and  the  desire  to  give  my  children  those  ad- 
vantages of  education  which  no  reverse  of  fortune  can  ever 
take  from  them ;  those  advantages  of  education,  which,  let 
their  purse  be  light  or  heavy,  will  insure  to  them,  with 
moderate  industry  and  prudence,  consideration  and  a 
standing  among  the  favored  classes  of  the  land.  And, 
while  I  know  that  my  circumstances  permit  me  to  obtain 
such  knowledge  for  my  own  children,  shall  I  vote  for  a 
law  cutting  off  others  from  similar  advantages? 

"  We  have  decided  this  matter  once.  We  have  done 
well.  The  people  have  approved  our  course.  They  cherish 
this  fund.  They  look  upon  it  as  their  own  and  their  chil- 
dren's. Never  with  my  vote  shall  it  be  taken  from  them. 
Never,  without  my  protest,  shall  it  be  diverted  to  any 
other  from  the  sacred  cause  to  which  it  is  now  devoted. 
Never,  I  am  sure,  can  it  be  so  diverted  with  the  people's 

346 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

consent.  And  never,  if  I  know  anything  of  the  feelings  of 
this  house,  will  they  countenance  this  project  for  its 
diversion. 

"  Xow  at  the  very  outset,  in  its  first  stage,  do  I  hope 
that  the  bill  will  be  rejected.  I  am  not  satisfied  to  have  it 
defeated.  I  am  unwilling  to  see  it  even  for  a  moment 
countenanced  by  the  house.  I  wish  and  hope  to  see  it  put 
down  at  once;  and  by  such  a  majority  that  it  shall  be 
evident  to  the  public  and  to  all  future  legislatures  that 
such  efforts  ever  will  be,  as  they  ought  to  be,  idle  and  un- 
availing.^^ 

Valiant  as  was  his  lifelong  advocacy  of  free  public 
schools,  it  was  as  a  member  of  the  Indiana  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1851  and  the  legislative  session  immedi- 
ately following  that  he  was  able  to  render  the  most  ejfficient 
and  most  conspicuous  services  to  the  cause  of  an  education 
"  free  as  the  living  waters."  No  intelligent  comprehension 
of  the  education  reforms  inaugurated  by  that  second  Con- 
stitutional Convention  and  no  adequate  appreciation  of  the 
large  part  which  the  younger  Owen  has  played  in  laying  the 
foundations  of  the  public-school  systems  of  Indiana  and 
the  Middle  West  are  possible  without  a  knowledge  of  the 
history  of  education  in  the  Hoosier  State  previous  to  1850. 
This  will  be  briefly  sketched. 

The  first  Constitutional  Convention  of  the  newly  made 
State  of  Indiana,  convened  at  Corydon  in  1816,  adopted 
the  following  provision  respecting  education: 

"  Knowledge  and  learning  generally  diffused  through  a 
community  being  essential  to  the  preservation  of  a  free 
government  ...  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  General 
Assembly  as  soon  as  circumstances  will  permit,  to  provide 
by  law  for  a  general  system  of  education,  ascending  in  a 
regular  gradation  from  township  schools  to  a  State  uni- 
versity, wherein  tuition  shall  be  gratis,  and  equally  open 
to  all." 

Commenting  on  this  in  an  address  before  the  students 

347 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

of  Indiana  University  in  later  years,  Eobert  Dale  Owen 
said: 

"With  pride  and  pleasure  may  we  read  in  our  State 
constitution  the  provision  which  the  provident  wisdom  of 
the  Corydon  convention  therein  established  for  the  promo- 
tion of  public  education.  You  may  look  through  the  con- 
stitution of  every  State  in  the  Union  and  you  will  not  find 
in  one  of  them  a  prospective  provision  for  public  educa- 
tion so  liberal  and  comprehensive  as  this  of  our  own 
young  State.  Eead  aright,  that  single  paragraph  should 
attract  as  settlers  to  the  forests  of  Indiana  every  emi- 
grant who  feels,  as  parents  ought  to  feel,  the  engrossing 
importance  of  the  subject.  .  .  .  Education  is  the 
noblest  object,  the  most  important  work  that  ever  occu- 
pied a  legislature's  time  or  a  nation's  thoughts ;  that  shall 
make  the  world  in  its  coming  generation  a  happy  or  a 
miserable  one;  the  only  rock  foundation  of  political  lib- 
erty and  public  order;  the  Great  Moral  Arbiter  of  the 
future  destinies  of  our  race ! " 

The  provisions  of  that  natal  Constitution  were  unique 
and  without  precedent  among  the  older  States.  "  Previous 
to  Indiana,  no  State  had  in  its  constitution  declared  for  a 
graduated  system  of  schools  extending  from  the  district 
schools  to  the  university,  equally  open  to  all  on  the  basis  of 
gratuitous  instruction/'  The  dictum  of  the  first  instru- 
ment of  government  for  the  infant  State  battling  against 
the  strenuous  forces  of  the  wilderness  was  a  distinct  ad- 
vance and  departure  in  educational  thought  and  procedure. 

If  to  do  were  as  easy  as  to  know  what  it  were  good  to 
do,  the  duty  of  providing  by  law  for  a  general  system  of 
education  which  the  constitution  had  imposed  upon  the 
pioneer  people  of  a  frontier  commonwealth  would  have 
been  easily  and  efiiciently  discharged.  It  was  one  thing, 
however,  to  command  by  the  stroke  of  the  pen  the  build- 
ing of  an  effective  school  system;  it  was  a  much  more 
difficult  thing,  as  the  early  fathers  of  Indiana  soon  dis- 

348 


ROBERT   DALE   OWEN 

covered,  to  conceive  and  enact  such  legislation  as  should 
consummate  a  system  of  public  instruction  at  once  State 
controlled,  uniformly  administered,  and  uniformly  avail- 
able. 

The  history  of  the  educational  legislation  between  the 
first  and  last  Indiana  Constitutional  Conventions  is  but 
the  story  of  repeated  efforts,  some  of  them  spasmodic, 
many  of  them  mistaken,  all  of  them  unsuccessful,  to  create 
a  State  system  of  schools  in  keeping  with  the  ideas  of  the 
makers  of  the  early  constitution. 

The  difficulties  against  which  that  early  school  legisla- 
tion labored  were :  ( 1 )  The  lack  of  an  overwhelming  public 
sentiment  such  as  we  enjoy  to-day  supporting  the  schools; 
(2)  the  lack  of  funds  with  which  to  maintain  them;  (3) 
the  lack  of  competent  teachers;  (4)  the  lack  of  systematic 
organization  of  the  educational  system  of  the  State. 

Education  was  a  secondary  consideration  during  pio- 
neer days.  The  rough  backwoodsmen,  struggling  with  the 
Indian  and  the  forest,  prized  muscle  more  than  culture, 
and  internal  improvements  more  than  the  public-school 
system,  for  which  a  faithful  few  never  ceased  to  labor. 
Theoretically  all  admitted  the  advantages  and  benefits  of 
education  both  to  the  individual  citizen  and  the  State. 
"  The  objection  was  not  so  much  to  schools  as  to  free 
State-controlled,  State-supported  schools." 

The  arguments  against  a  State  public-school  system 
were  varied  and  ingenious.  It  was  urged  that  the  funds  of 
the  State,  however  large,  could  not  support  schools  operated 
upon  such  a  vast  scale.  Bachelors  blessed  with  property, 
and  parents  whose  children  attended  private  schools,  main- 
tained that  the  support  which  they  would  be  compelled  to 
render  by  taxation  to  free  schools  would  be  entirely  out 
of  proportion  to  the  benefit  which  they  received  from  them. 
Sectarianism  denounced  the  public  school  as  "  godless," 
while  the  enemies  of  religion  declared  the  real  object  of 
the  proposed  free  educational  system  to  be  the  union  of 

349 


THE   NE^V   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

church  and  state.  Eejected  by  the  rich  because  they  could 
afford  the  luxury  of  private  instruction  for  their  offspring, 
the  free  school  was  spurned  by  the  less  fortunate  as  a 
*'  pauper  institution/'  It  was  contended  that  "  education 
is  a  private  responsibility  of  the  parent,  and  if  not  of  the 
parent  then  of  the  church";  that  the  "real  purpose  of 
taxation  is  to  support  the  Government";  that  "taxation 
for  free  schools  sets  limits  to  individual  rights,  for  the  in- 
dustrious ought  not  to  be  taxed  to  support  the  indolent " ; 
that  "  taxes  are  a  drain  in  any  case,  but  that  educational 
taxation  is  larceny";  that  the  free  school  propaganda  is 
'^undemocratic,"  dangerous  to  the  state  and  subversive  of 
the  general  good,  "a  usurpation  of  local  rights  and  an 
infringement  of  personal  and  family  liberties."  As  late 
as  1837  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature  declared  that 
he  desired  for  an  epitaph  the  words,  "  Here  lies  an  enemy 
of  free  schools."  Within  two  years  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  which  founded  our  present  educational  system, 
citizens  otherwise  in  good  standing  in  their  respective  com- 
munities sought  by  the  display  of  armed  force  at  the  polls 
to  prevent  the  passage  of  educational  measures  which  the 
legislature  had  submitted  for  ratification  to  the  voters  of 
the  commonwealth. 

Intimidated  by  such  strenuous  opposition,  successive 
legislatures,  despite  the  devoted  efforts  of  the  faithful 
friends  of  education,  notable  among  whom  was  Robert  Dale 
Owen,  cringed  and  temporized  and  compromised  with  the 
enemies  of  the  free  public  school. 

In  the  wake  of  cowardly  compromise  came  a  train  of 
evils.  State  school  funds,  created  largely  through  the  gen- 
erosity of  the  National  Government,  though  bearing  prom- 
ise for  the  future,  yielded  but  little  aid  to  the  free  schools  of 
the  commonwealth.  Failure  to  assert  the  right  of  the  State 
to  control,  or  the  duty  of  the  State  to  assist  in  maintaining 
them  left  the  public  schools  at  the  caprice  of  isolated  com- 
munities.   Some  of  these  elected  not  to  maintain  "  pauper 

350 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

schools."  Where  established,  "  the  schools  free  as  the  liv- 
ing waters/'  of  which  Kobert  Dale  Owen  had  so  fondly 
dreamed  in  those  halcyon  days  at  New  Harmony,  were  in 
reality  pay  schools,  a  monthly  fee  being  exacted  for  the 
niggardly  support  of  a  short-term  school  of  uncertain 
duration.  Ignorance  and  indifference  on  the  part  of  the 
people,  coupled  with  the  beggarly  pittance  which  these 
crude  struggling  schools  yielded  to  the  pedagogue,  at- 
tracted to  the  work  of  teaching  only  the  indolent,  the  ad- 
venturous, and  the  incompetent.  Since  there  was  no  State 
supervision  and  no  local  organization  of  the  schools  worthy 
the  name,  what  little  educational  system,  if  system  it  may 
be  called,  which  the  State  possessed  or  claimed  to  possess, 
was  in  a  chaotic  state.  As  a  result  of  these  conditions,  when 
the  second  Constitutional  Convention  met  in  1850  the  per 
cent  of  illiteracy  in  Indiana  was  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  State  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and  almost 
twice  as  great  as  the  average  per  cent  of  illiteracy  in  all  the 
twenty-six  States  that  then  composed  the  Union. 

In  1843,  led  by  the  Hon.  Caleb  Mills,  to  whom  Indiana 
owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  as  great  as  that  which  Massachu- 
setts owes  to  Horace  Mann,  the  friends  of  education  began 
a  crusade  in  favor  of  the  complete  reorganization  of  the 
schools  of  the  State.  Spurred  to  action  by  startling  rev- 
elations concerning  both  the  dangerous  and  wide-spread 
illiteracy  and  the  utter  inefficiency  of  the  educational  sys- 
tem of  the  commonwealth,  the  legislatures  of  1848  and 
1849  submitted  wise  educational  measures,  meeting  the 
approval  of  Mills  and  his  associates,  for  ratification  by  the 
people.  In  each  instance  the  vote  showed  a  large  and  in- 
creasing majority  of  the  citizenship  in  favor  of  free  schools 
and  their  proper  support. 

The  second  Constitutional  Convention  followed  close 
upon  the  heels  of  this  ratification  of  "public  schools 
wherein  tuition  shall  be  gratis  and  open  to  all."  Though 
its  provisions  respecting  education  superseded  the  measures 

351 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

which  the  popular  vote  had  but  just  ratified,  yet  that  rati- 
fication declared  the  true  attitude  of  the  State,  strength- 
ened the  hands  of  the  devoted  friends  of  the  schools,  and 
wrote  the  educational  provisions  of  the  new  instrument 
of  government. 

Though  his  experience  in  the  schools  at  New  Lanark 
and  New  Harmony,  his  devotion  to  the  free  public  school, 
his  wide  knowledge  of  educational  affairs,  and  his  tact  and 
ability  as  a  debater  and  parliamentarian  clearly  entitled 
Eobert  Dale  Owen  to  the  position  of  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Education  in  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
public  prejudice  against  the  very  name  of  Owen  rendered 
his  appointment  impossible. 

Though  not  even  a  member  of  the  special  committee  to 
which  they  were  entrusted,  Owen  was  the  dominant  force 
of  the  convention  in  educational  matters.  He  early  con- 
vinced the  delegates  that  the  Constitution  must  provide 
for  the  establishment  of  a  general  and  uniform  system  of 
common  schools  wherein  tuition  should  be  without  charge 
and  equally  open  to  all.  He  pointed  out  to  them  and  to 
the  special  committee  the  general  provisions  by  which  the 
new  instrument  of  government  should  pave  the  way  for  a 
complete  reorganization  of  the  educational  machinery  of 
the  State.  Upon  his  motion,  prominent  educators  ad- 
dressed the  convention  concerning  the  condition  of  the 
educational  affairs  of  the  commonwealth  and  suggested 
legislative  remedies  for  the  same.  Owen  himself  appeared 
before  the  committee  repeatedly,  urged  upon  it  the  sec- 
tions of  the  article  on  education  in  the  present  Constitu- 
tion, induced  the  committee  to  report  that  article  favor- 
ably, and  aided  in  bringing  the  article  to  a  successful 
passage.  It  rests  in  the  Constitution  to-day,  partly  the 
handiwork  of  Owen. 

The  first  section  of  the  constitutional  provisions  relat- 
ing to  education  declares  that,  "  Knowledge  and  learning, 
generally  diffused  throughout  a  community,  being  essential 

352 


ROBERT   DALE   OWEN 

to  the  preservation  of  a  free  government,  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  General  Assembly  to  encourage,  by  all  suitable 
means,  moral,  intellectual,  scientific,  and  agricultural  im- 
provement, and  to  provide,  by  law,  for  a  general  and 
uniform  system  of  common  schools,  wherein  tuition  shall 
be  without  charge,  and  equally  open  to  all/' 

The  Constitution  of  1816  had  contained  substantially 
the  same  provision  couched  in  much  the  same  language, 
save  that  in  it  the  duty  of  the  General  Assembly  to  pro- 
vide by  law  for  a  general  and  uniform  system  of  common 
schools  was  qualified  by  the  use  of  the  words  "  as  soon  as 
the  circumstances  will  permit."  The  clash  of  selfish  and 
sectional  interests  had  never  permitted  the  performance  of 
this  duty,  and  the  State  was  without  a  general  and  uniform 
system  of  schools  when  the  Constitutional  Convention  as- 
sembled. By  a  majority  of  eighty  thousand  the  people  of 
the  State  ordered  that  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of 
1850  be  carried  into  effect.  Armed  with  this  ratification, 
Kobert  Dale  Owen,  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Education  in  the  lower  house  of  the  legislative  assembly 
that  immediately  followed  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
pressed  to  a  successful  issue  the  school  law  of  1852  that 
gave  form  and  substance  to  the  constitutional  provisions 
relating  to  education. 

By  successive  grants  both  before  and  after  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution  of  1816,  the  National  Government  had 
bestowed  upon  the  young  commonwealth,  battling  against 
the  forces  of  the  wilderness,  both  land  and  money  for  edu- 
cational purposes.  The  early  Constitution  did  not  attempt 
to  define  or  dispose  of  these  assets  but  left  them  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  annual  legislation.  Since  the  funds  that 
grew  out  of  these  successive  congressional  grants  were  en- 
tirely at  the  caprice  of  legislative  enactment,  the  repeal  or 
amendment  of  the  statute  under  which  any  given  fund  had 
been  applied  for  the  benefit  of  the  free  schools  could  easily 
arrest,  divert,  or  dissipate  it.  Though  these  funds  were  in 
24  353 


THE   NE\Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

the  strictest  sense  of  the  word  trust  funds  for  the  use  of 
the  schools^  repeated  attempts  were  made  between  the  two 
Constitutions  to  annul  or  divert  them.  Only  the  honor  of 
the  State  and  the  never-to-be-forgotten  vigilance  of  the 
unselfish  friends  of  education  defeated  the  combined  as- 
saults of  the  enemies  of  free  schools  and  the  misguided 
friends  of  other  and  less  worthy  enterprises  upon  the 
noblest  trust  fund  which  history  yet  records. 

Eobert  Dale  Owen  had  been  the  leader  in  two  of  the  suc- 
cessful legislative  fights  by  which  the  partizans  of  the  public 
schools  had  brought  confusion  upon  the  assailants  of  these 
schools  funds.  Eecognizing  that  as  long  as  they  were 
the  creatures  of  the  General  Assembly  they  would  be  in 
perpetual  danger  from  attacks  like  those  from  which  he 
had  aided  in  rescuing  them^  he  induced  the  special  com- 
mittee and  the  convention  to  define  these  funds  in  the 
Constitution  itself  and  by  so  doing  made  them  inviolate. 

The  second  section  of  the  educational  provisions  of  the 
Constitution  declares  the  Common  School  Fund  of  the 
State  to  consist  of  the  following: 

1.  The  Congressional  Township  Fund. 

2.  The  Surplus  Revenue  Fund. 

3.  The  Saline  Fund. 

4.  The  Bank  Tax  Fund. 

5.  The  Seminary  Fund. 

6.  The  Contingent  Fund. 

7.  The  Swamp  Land  Fund. 

Though  the  Constitution  by  defining  and  dedicating 
the  various  educational  resources  of  the  State  to  the  com- 
mon fund  had  made  that  fund  a  perpetual  principal  for 
the  benefit  of  the  public  schools  of  the  State,  yet  Robert 
Dale  Owen,  fearful  lest  the  interpretation  of  the  courts 
might  defeat  the  plain  intent  of  the  Constitution,  induced 
his  colleagues  to  insert  among  the  educational  provisions  of 
the  Constitution  a  declaration  that  all  the  funds  which 

354 


no  BERT   DALE    OWEN 

go  to  make  up  the  Common  School  Fund  of  the  State 
should  forever  be  a  trust  fund  to  be  held  sacred  and  in- 
violate during  the  perpetuity  of  the  State  government.  In 
the  opinion  of  many  able  lawyers  this  provision,  for  which 
Owen  is  to  be  given  the  greater  meed  of  credit,  places  the 
common  fund  of  the  State  even  beyond  the  influence  of  a 
modification  or  repeal  of  the  Constitution  by  which  it  was 
created. 

After  several  wise  provisions  concerning  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  Common  School  Fund  and  the  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  various  county  governments  with  re- 
spect to  the  same,  the  article  on  education  terminates  by 
creating  the  office  of  State  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction. The  educational  affairs  of  the  State  were  in  a 
chaotic  condition,  largely  because  of  the  lack  of  a  strongly 
centralized  administration  of  the  same.  The  younger  State 
of  Wisconsin  had  already  provided  for  such  an  executive 
officer  as  the  State  Superintendent.  Mr.  Owen  urged  his 
colleagues  to  profit  by  the  example  which  Indiana's  less 
mature  sister  State  offered  the  convention.  To  the  crea- 
tion of  this  office  and  to  the  ability  in  which  it  has  been 
administered  in  all  its  history,  much  of  the  present 
efficiency  of  the  Indiana  educational  system  must  be  at- 
tributed. 

The  legislative  assembly  of  1852,  recognizing  the  serv- 
ices of  Eobert  Dale  Owen  in  the  cause  of  education  in  the 
Constitutional  Convention,  bestowed  upon  him  the  chair- 
manship of  the  Committee  on  Education  which  the  latter 
body  had  denied  him,  and  afforded  him  the  supreme  oppor- 
tunity of  his  life  to  render  valiant  service  in  the  cause  of 
free  public  schools. 

The  provisions  of  the  Constitutions  of  1816  and  1850 
with  respect  to  the  character  and  organization  of  the 
schools  of  the  State  were  almost  identical.  So  nearly  do 
the  provisions  and  the  language  of  the  two  instruments 
resemble  each  other  that  they  suggest  the  deadly  parallel. 

355 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

Yet  the  Constitution  of  1816  did  not  succeed  in  creating 
a  general  and  uniform  system  of  public  schools  while  the 
Constitution  of  1850  was  the  natal  note  of  the  system 
which  has  been  perpetuated  into  our  own  day.  That  under 
substantially  the  same  provisions  the  Constitution  of  1850 
should  succeed  in  doing  what  the  Constitution  of  1816 
failed  completely  to  achieve  is  due  to  the  genius  of  Eobert 
Dale  Owen.  As  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Education 
in  the  lower  house,  he  realized  that  the  first  section  of 
Article  8  of  the  new  Constitution  was  a  dead  letter  in  the 
absence  of  wise  legislation  carrying  out  its  general  pro- 
visions; that  the  section  in  question,  like  its  sister  section 
in  the  Constitution  of  1816,  was  a  mere  skeleton  which  the 
General  Assembly  must  by  successive  statutes  clothe  with 
flesh  and  blood;  and  that  if  the  legislative  assembly  of 
1852  did  not  immediately  proceed  to  the  task  of  making 
the  constitutional  provision  just  described  effective,  the 
schools  under  the  new  instrument  would  be  as  lacking  in 
uniformity  and  efficiency  as  the  schools  had  been  under 
its  predecessor. 

Owen  impressed  this  view  upon  his  colleagues  of  the 
committee  and  upon  the  members  of  both  Houses  of  the 
General  Assembly.  iVs  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Education  of  the  lower  house  and  chairman  of  the  joint 
committee  for  both  houses,  he  brought  to  a  successful 
issue  the  School  Law  of  1852,  with  which  his  name  must 
ever  be  associated. 

In  the  new  school  law  the  old  tone  of  compromise  and 
apology  was  superseded  by  a  spirit  of  hope  and  earnest- 
ness. Some  of  its  provisions  were  revolutionary  in  pur- 
pose and  scope.  A  State  tax  of  ten  cents  on  each  one 
hundred  dollars'  worth  of  property  was  levied.  This  es- 
tablished the  principle  that  the  property  of  all  the  State 
should  be  taxed  for  the  education  of  all  the  children  of  the 
State.  True  to  the  teachings  of  William  Maclure,  who  had 
strenuously  advocated  the  civil  township  as  the  unit  of 

356 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

school  government  in  all  the  Western  States,  the  old  con- 
gressional township  system  was  abolished  and  each  civil 
township  was  declared  a  township  for  school  purposes,  the 
township  trustee  being  given  full  control  of  its  educational 
as  well  as  its  civil  affairs.  This  innovation,  copied  in  modi- 
fied form  by  other  Western  commonwealths,  has  given  In- 
diana perhaps  the  best  organization  of  rural  schools  in  the 
nation.  Provision  was  made  for  the  formation  of  town- 
ship libraries  and  their  maintenance.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  public-library  system  of  the  State.  In- 
corporated cities  and  towns  were  declared  school  corpora- 
tions separate  and  independent  of  the  civil  townships  in 
which  they  were  located.  They  were  empowered  to  appoint 
school  trustees,  to  build  schoolhouses,  and  to  levy  taxes  for 
their  support.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  present  town 
and  city  school  systems  of  the  State.  Provision  was  made 
for  the  election  of  a  State  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction and  for  the  establishment  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education,  the  duties  of  each  being  clearly  defined.  To 
the  ability  with  which  these  two  factors  in  the  educational 
administration  of  the  State  have  been  administered  the 
schools  of  the  commonwealth  owe  much  of  their  efficiency. 

In  accordance  with  the  mandate  of  the  new  Constitu- 
tion, all  the  permanent  school  funds  defined  in  the  new 
instrument  of  government  were  consolidated  and  wiser 
measures  enacted  for  the  safe  and  profitable  investment  of 
the  principal,  and  the  equitable  distribution  of  the  pro- 
ceeds arising  from  it.  To-da)%  as  the  result  of  the  legisla- 
tive provisions  of  1852,  for  which  Owen  and  his  associates 
upon  the  Educational  Committee  deserve  the  credit,  In- 
diana is  blessed  with  a  permanent  school  fund  of  nearly 
eleven  million  dollars.  Only  three  States — Texas,  Illinois, 
and  Missouri — ^have  a  larger  productive  school  fund. 

It  has  been  the  custom  for  years  to  attribute  to  the 
honored  Caleb  Mills  the  credit  for  the  laws  which  really 
formed  the  public-school  system  of  Indiana.     To  detract 

357 


THE  NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

one  Jot  or  tittle  from  the  great  amount  of  praise  which  has 
been  and  will  continue  to  be  bestowed  upon  that  eminent 
educator  for  the  part  which  he  played  in  creating  and 
organizing  the  educational  machinery  of  the  common- 
wealth would  be  neither  just  nor  possible ;  but  if  Mr.  Mills 
was  the  professional  father  of  the  Indiana  educational  sys- 
tem, Eobert  Dale  Owen  was  its  legislative  ancestor,  and 
the  two  working  together  as  educator  and  statesman  were 
the  architects  who  laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundation 
of  all  that  is  worthy  in  the  educational  organization  of  the 
Hoosier  State.  Both  created  and  fostered  an  enthusiasm 
for  the  free  public  school.  One  suggested  a  superb  plan 
for  the  organization  of  the  schools  of  the  State  and  the 
other  wrote  that  plan  into  enduring  legislation. 

Such  were  the  contributions  of  Eobert  Dale  Owen  to 
the  educational  history  of  his  adopted  State.  Through  him 
Eobert  Owen  and  William  Maclure  labored  and  spoke  in 
convention  hall  and  legislative  assembly.  Had  they  been 
there,  clothed  in  the  flesh,  they  would  have  cried  "  Bravo !  " 
to  all  of  his  efforts  as  delegate  and  legislator  in  the  cause 
of  education.  In  him  the  spirit  of  humanity  and  the  great 
love  which  the  founders  of  New  Harmony  bore  for  free 
schools,  which  are  after  all  the  chief  hope  of  those  who  earn 
their  living  in  the  sweat  of  their  brows,  perpetuated  itself 
in  the  educational  system  of  the  commonwealth  of  Indiana. 

The  Constitution  of  1850  and  the  School  Law  of  1853 
are,  through  Eobert  Dale  Owen,  the  handiwork  of  Eobert 
Owen  and  William  Maclure.  Though  the  educational  ex- 
periments of  the  Commune  failed  as  signally  as  did  the 
social  order,  who  dare  say  that  the  master  of  New  Lanark 
and  the  Father  of  American  Geology  lived  in  vain? 

The  School  Law  of  1852,  with  some  important  additions, 
constitutes  the  school  law  of  Indiana  to-day.  Temporarily 
annulled  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Act  of  1852  were  incorporated  into  the  School 
Law  of  1865.     Into  that  law,  some  new  features  were  in- 

358 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

troduced,  one  of  the  most  important  being  that  of  teachers' 
institutes.  The  law  of  1865  has  been  supplemented  by 
others,  each  one  calculated  to  perfect  the  system  and  to 
widen  its  scope.  The  power  of  taxation  has  been  increased 
and  trustees  have  been  empowered  to  issue  bonds  to  pro- 
cure funds  for  the  erection  of  new  and  more  commodious 
buildings.  Successive  statutes  have  provided  for  the  edu- 
cation of  colored  children;  for  the  important  office  of 
county  superintendent;  for  the  present  State  text-book 
law,  and  for  the  creation  and  support  of  an  efficient  State 
Normal  School. 

The  departures  from  precedent  which  marked  the  era 
of  Eobert  Dale  Owen's  activity  in  Indiana  legislation  ex- 
cited wide  discussion  and  comment,  much  of  it  unfavorable, 
but  in  succeeding  years  other  States  followed  the  example 
of  Indiana,  not  only  in  making  the  most  generous  provi- 
sions for  free  schools,  but  in  emancipating  woman  from 
legal  bondage.  In  the  formation  of  public  sentiment  along 
these  lines  Eobert  Dale  Owen  was  an  active  agent.  As 
writer  and  speaker  his  genius  was  equal  to  any  attack  upon 
the  laws  for  which  he  stood  sponsor,  and  in  the  period  of 
discussion  which  followed  the  adoption  of  these  advanced 
measures  he  was  the  most  conspicuous  and  brilliant  figure. 
Commenting  on  the  legislation  enacted  through  his  in- 
fluence, a  contributor  to  the  London  Times  said :  "  Indiana 
has  attained  the  highest  civilization  of  any  State  in  the 
Union/' 

In  1853  Mr.  Owen  was  appointed,  by  President  Pierce, 
charge  d'affaires  at  Naples,  and  at  this  post  he  remained 
for  nearly  six  years.  During  this  period  he  followed  his 
father  in  becoming  an  advocate  of  spiritualism.  "  From 
the  first  avowal  of  spiritualistic  notions,"  to  quote  a  biog- 
rapher, "  he  led  the  numerous  hosts  of  the  new  faith  with 
undisputed  superiority.  Into  the  work  of  propagating, 
defending,  and  expurgating  spiritualism  he  put  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.    He  attended  spiritualistic  conventions 

359 


THE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

all  over  the  country,  shaped  the  doctrines,  explored  the 
phenomena,  and  defended  the  honesty  of  his,  the  new 
faith,  and  really  converted  it  from  a  loose  assemblage  of 
notions  into  a  system  and  a  religion.  His  works.  Footfalls 
on  the  Boundary  of  Another  World,  and  The  Debatable 
Land  Between  this  World  and  the  N'ext,  were  widely  read 
and  discussed,  the  first  causing  a  literary  sensation/' 

Robert  Dale  Owen  from  his  boyhood  was  opposed  to 
slavery.  His  keen  sympathy  with  the  oppressed  of  every 
type  and  the  radical  notions  concerning  human  equality 
which  he  held  in  common  with  his  illustrious  father, 
brought  him  at  a  tender  age  into  an  intense  hatred  of  the 
institution  of  human  bondage. 

In  England  slaves  were  exceedingly  rare,  and  the 
younger  Owen  saw  but  little  of  the  commerce  in  the  bodies 
of  black  men.  The  New  Moral  World  was  projected  upon 
soil  which  the  Ordinance  of  1787  had  forever  dedicated 
to  human  liberty.  But  there  was  no  lack  of  opportunity 
to  observe  the  workings  of  the  slave  traffic.  Robert  Dale 
Owen  saw  the  negro  on  Indiana  soil  a  fugitive  from  a 
brutal  master;  a  beast  of  burden  on  primitive  flatboats 
plying  Western  waters ;  a  human  chattel  in  the  slave  mar- 
ket at  New  Orleans;  and  joined  with  Frances  Wright  at 
Nashoba  in  a  noble  but  misguided  effort  to  rescue  him  and 
solve  the  slavery  question  by  colonization. 

Each  succeeding  contact  with  slavery  in  any  of  its 
phases  increased  the  already  deep-seated  antipathy  of  his 
early  years.  Maintaining  as  he  did  the  equality  of  all 
men,  irrespective  of  color  or  sex,  to  him  slavery  was  an 
intolerable  injustice  against  which  every  fiber  of  his  splen- 
did young  manhood  cried  out  in  protest.  Realizing  the 
utter  hopelessness  of  any  save  a  peaceable  resistance  to  the 
traffic  in  human  bodies  then,  like  Lincoln  he  made  a 
solemn  resolve  that  if  an  opportunity  should  ever  come 
he  would  strike  a  valiant  blow  against  slavery. 

There  was  a  strange  connection  and  resemblance  be- 

360 


THE  OLD  FORT— PRESENT  CONDITION. 
Headquarters  United  States  Geological  Survey  under  David  Dale  Owen. 


ROBERT   DALE    O^VEN 

tween  the  life  of  the  younger  Owen  and  that  of  the  mar- 
tyred President.  Though  Owen  was  eight  years  the  senior 
of  Lincoln,  the  two  were  contemporaries  in  public  life  for 
over  a  third  of  a  century.  Lincoln  was  reared  on  Pigeon 
Creek,  Indiana,  within  less  than  fifty  miles  of  the  site 
upon  which  the  elder  Owen  sought  to  found  a  social  order 
that  should  achieve  human  equality.  While  the  younger 
Owen  was  being  reared  in  luxury  in  a  well-ordered  English 
household,  Lincoln  grew  to  young  manhood,  almost  in 
squalor,  in  a  dilapidated  frontier  cabin. 

While  Robert  Dale  Owen,  groT\Ti  to  man's  estate,  en- 
tered with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  true  humanitarian  into 
his  father's  social  and  educational  experiments,  Lincoln, 
spurred  on  by  poverty,  vigorously  navigated  with  flatboat 
and  raft  the  Ohio  and  its  tributaries.  It  is  more  than 
probable  that  his  craft,  ascending  the  Wabash,  touched  at 
the  then  flourishing  port  of  Xew  Harmony  and  that  he 
and  Owen  met,  like  ships  that  pass  in  the  night,  beneath 
the  classic  shades  of  The  New  Moral  World. 

At  approximately  the  same  time  both  left  the  "  Indiana 
Pocket ''  for  wider  fields  of  usefulness :  Owen  to  enter 
upon  an  editorial  career  in  the  metropolis  of  the  country, 
by  which  he  sprang  almost  at  once  into  national  prominence 
as  the  foremost  advocate  of  "  human  equality  irrespective 
of  color  or  sex'';  Lincoln  to  rise  by  sheer  force  of  hard 
work  and  strength  of  personality  from  obscurity  to  ac- 
knowledged leadership  of  the  antislavery  sentiment  in  the 
Middle  West. 

There  was  much  in  common  between  the  two  men. 
Both  had  deep-seated  convictions  of  right  and  wrong. 
Both  were  unswerving  in  their  devotion  to  a  principle. 
Both  were  men  of  pure  private  life  and  irreproachable 
public  conduct.  Both  were  singularly  gifted  with  that  fine 
moral  courage  which  would  rather  be  right  than  be  Presi- 
dent. Both  were  misunderstood  and  maligned  by  their 
contemporaries.    Both  in  the  fulness  of  time  came  into  a 

361 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

tardy  recognition  of  the  unselfishness  and  the  vahie  of  the 
services  which  each  in  his  own  place  had  rendered  for  the 
betterment  of  men  and  the  relief  of  the  oppressed. 

Hatred  of  the  institution  of  human  slavery  was  common 
to  the  two  men.  Both  had  registered  in  early  manhood  a 
resolution  to  fight  it  to  the  bitter  end.  Yet  neither  was  an 
Abolitionist  as  the  term  was  used  in  their  day.  Neither  be- 
lieved that  Congress  had  any  constitutional  right  to  inter- 
fere with  slavery  in  the  Southern  States.  Neither  coun- 
tenanced the  idea  of  the  forcible  emancipation  of  the 
negro.  Both  pinned  their  hope  to  colonization,  to  com- 
pensated emancipation,  to  an  educated  ballot,  to  constitu- 
tional amendment.  When  the  awful  form  of  disunion 
darkened  the  national  threshold,  both  were  willing  to  sub- 
mit to  slaver}^,  if  need  be,  in  order  to  preserve  our  national 
existence  intact.  With  both  the  paramount  object  then 
became  "  to  save  the  Union  and  neither  to  save  nor  destroy 
slavery."  "  If  they  could  have  saved  the  Union  without 
freeing  any  slaves,  they  would  have  done  so.  If  they 
could  have  saved  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others, 
also  they  would  have  done  that."  It  was  not  that  they 
hated  slavery  the  less  but  that  they  loved  the  Union  more. 

By  the  Compromise  Measures  of  1850  Henry  Clay  post- 
poned secession  and  the  civil  war  for  ten  years.  He 
offered  five  propositions,  all  of  which  by  separate  bills 
were  enacted  into  laws:  (1)  to  admit  California  as  a  free 
State;  (2)  to  apply  the  principle  of  Squatter  Sovereignty 
to  New  Mexico  and  Utah;  (3)  to  purchase  the  claim  of 
Texas  to  a  portion  of  New  Mexico;  (4)  to  abolish  the 
slave-trade  but  not  slavery  itself  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia; (5)  to  pass  a  more  effective  fugitive  slave  act. 

The  passage  of  the  new  Fugitive  Slave  Act  aroused  the 
most  intense  excitement  throughout  the  North.  Memo- 
rials poured  in  upon  Congress  from  all  the  free  States  de- 
manding the  repeal  of  the  law  as  "  revolting  to  the  moral 
sense  of  the  civilized  world."    Webster,  who  had  upheld  the 

362 


ROBERT   DALE   OWEN 

act,  was  denounced  as  a  traitor  to  liberty.  Fourteen  North- 
ern States  practically  nullified  the  new  act  of  the  National 
Congress  relating  to  runaway  slaves  by  passing  laws  to 
protect  them.  Underground  railroads  grew  in  number  and 
in  zeal,  while  over  all  the  Northland  excited  Abolition- 
ists publicly  counseled  armed  resistance  to  their  Southern 
brother  seeking  by  due  process  of  law  to  reclaim  his  dusky 
but  human  chattel. 

Within  a  month  after  the  passage  of  Clay's  Compromise 
Measures  the  Indiana  Constitutional  Convention  of  1850 
assembled.  Excitement  over  the  new  slavery  legislation 
was  at  fever  heat.  Eobert  Dale  Owen  did  not  believe  that 
it  lay  within  the  real  province  of  the  convention  or  that 
it  was  the  part  of  wisdom  for  the  delegates  to  assume  any 
attitude  upon  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  or  upon  the  conduct 
of  those  who  were  resisting  its  enforcement.  When  the 
introduction  of  a  clumsily  worded  resolution  made  the 
question  of  the  Compromise  Measures  an  issue  before  the 
convention,  Mr.  Owen,  recognizing  that  it  would  be  nec- 
essary for  the  delegates  to  take  some  action,  lest  the  real 
attitude  of  the  State  be  misunderstood,  with  the  readiness 
and  diplomacy  which  made  him  more  than  the  peer  of  all 
the  members  of  that  historical  body,  succeeded  in  secur- 
ing the  substitution  of  a  resolution  that  breathed  in  every 
line  a  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  Union  and  submission  to  the 
law  of  the  land. 

The  resolution  declares  that  the  common  sentiment  of 
the  people  of  Indiana  sustains  and  indorses  the  general 
features  and  intentions  of  the  Compromise  Measures  and 
recognizes  in  their  success  "  an  earnest  of  security  and 
perpetuity."  After  asserting  the  determination  of  "  cer- 
tain misguided  individuals "  to  resist  the  fugitive  slave 
law,  the  resolution,  rising  to  a  lofty  plane  of  civic  duty, 
maintains  ''that  whatever  may  be  the  opinions  of  in- 
dividuals as  to  the  wisdom  or  policy  of  any  of  the  details 
of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  it  is  the  duty  of  all  good  citizens 

363 


THE   NE^Y   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

to  conform  to  its  requisitions  and  to  carry  out,  in  good 
faith,  the  conditions  of  that  compromise  on  the  subject 
of  slavery,  which  is  coeval  with  the  Federal  Constitution." 

The  resolution  mirrors  the  true  attitude  of  Owen  in  the 
sectional  strife  that  preceded  the  war.  He  was  a  partizan 
of  neither  the  North  nor  the  South,  but  of  the  Union. 
Though  as  the  bitter  opponent  of  slavery  he  regretted  some 
features  of  the  Compromise  Measures  before  their  enact- 
ment, yet  he  sustained  and  indorsed  their  passage  "  as  the 
sole  means  of  calming  the  wide-spread  and  pestiferous 
agitation  which  pervaded  the  land.''  Though  he  believed 
every  phase  of  human  bondage  to  be  iniquitous,  yet  he 
deplored  and  censured  the  acts  by  which  overzealous 
Abolitionists  trampled  upon  the  legal  rights  of  the  slave- 
holder and  endangered  the  safety  and  perpetuity  of  the 
Union. 

To  the  day  on  which  Beauregard  opened  fire  upon  Ma- 
jor Anderson  and  his  gallant  little  band,  Owen,  out  of  his 
great  love  for  the  Union,  never  abandoned  hope  that  some 
way  and  some  how  it  would  be  peaceably  preserved  and 
the  threatened  civil  strife  averted.  After  the  six  chief 
States  had  declared  themselves  out  of  the  Union,  Virginia, 
as  the  spokesman  for  seven  border  States,  proposed  certain 
additional  compromise  measures,  the  acceptance  of  which 
by  the  Northern  States  would  be  necessary  in  order  to 
retain  their  allegiance  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  On  the 
13th  of  February,  1861,  Mr.  Owen,  by  invitation,  deliv- 
ered before  the  Indiana  Legislature  a  pathetic  appeal  to 
the  people  of  that  commonwealth,  urging  them  to  support 
by  memorials  and  petitions  to  Congress  the  measures 
whose  enactment  Virginia  and  her  associates  had  de- 
manded as  a  condition  precedent  to  their  continued  loyalty 
to  the  National  Government.  "  Up  and  be  doing,  ere  it  be 
too  late !  Yours  is  the  power.  There  are  constitutional 
means  enough  through  which  to  make  known  your  wishes 
to  those  who^  if  you  but  speak  in  numbers  sufficient,  must 

304 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

regard  them.  Speak,  then !  Memorialize.  If  you  be- 
lieve that  in  the  Christian  spirit  of  conciliation  is  our  only 
safety,  say  so.  If  you  believe  that  by  compromise  only  can 
this  Confederacy  be  held  together,  declare  it.  You  have 
been  called  on  by  one  in  authority  to  act  for  yourselves. 
Answer  the  call !  For  myself,  while  the  sword  remains 
undrawn,  while  kindred  blood  remains  unshed,  never  shall 
I  despair  of  the  Eepublic.  While  there  is  PEACE  there 
is  hope,  for  PEACE  is  the  life  of  the  Union." 

The  compromise  proposals  of  the  border  States  were 
suddenly  terminated  by  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter.  One 
after  the  other  all  of  them  that  dared  joined  fortunes 
with  the  rebellion,  and  memorial  and  compromise  became 
alike  fruitless.  With  the  beginning  of  hostilities  Mr. 
Owen's  attitude  underwent  a  radical  change.  Till  the  first 
gun  was  fired  he  had  been  essentially  a  man  of  peace, 
hoping  against  hope  that  the  Union  might  without  force 
of  arms  be  preserved  intact,  even  though  slavery  be  per- 
petuated. At  once  he  became  a  strenuous  advocate  of  the 
war  and  of  immediate  emancipation  as  a  measure  of 
belligerency.  With  enthusiasm  he  entered  into  the  defense 
of  the  Union  cause.  In  southern  Indiana,  where  sympathy 
for  the  South  ran  high  in  some  communities,  he  was  the 
most  conspicuous  and  effective  leader  of  the  Union  cause. 
He  was  commissioned  by  Governor  Morton  to  purchase 
arms  in  Europe  for  the  Indiana  troops  and  performed  his 
task  with  signal  ability. 

War  afforded  Lincoln  the  opportunity  to  make  the 
emancipation  of  the  negro  a  constitutional  act.  After  the 
preservation  of  the  Union,  the  liberation  of  the  slave  lay 
closest  to  the  great  heart  of  the  President.  Yet,  because 
his  paramount  wish  and  duty  was  to  save  the  Union,  he 
hesitated  to  free  the  black  man.  He  recognized  that 
slavery  was  the  real  tap-root  of  the  civil  war.  "  Without 
slavery,"  he  declared,  "  the  rebellion  never  would  have 
existed;  without  slavery  it  could  not  continue."     But  he 

365 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

feared  lest  a  premature  emancipation  might  alienate  the 
border  States  and  "  give  fifty  thousand  bayonets "  from 
them  "  over  to  the  rebels." 

On  the  25th  of  July,  1862,  the  President  issued  a  sixty- 
day  notice  calling  upon  the  Southern  soldiers  to  lay  down 
their  arms.  Lee's  reply  was  the  invasion  of  Maryland.  On 
September  17th  he  was  repulsed  at  Antietam  and  retired 
across  the  Potomac  to  Southern  soil.  That  same  day, 
which  was  the  sixth  day  previous  to  the  expiration  of  the 
sixty-day  notice,  Kobert  Dale  Owen  penned  a  remarkable 
letter  to  the  Chief  Executive  urging  him  to  terminate  the 
period  of  warning  with  the  manumission  of  the  negro. 
Emancipation  seemed  to  hang  in  the  balance.  The  Great 
Commoner  apparently  hesitated  to  take  a  course  fraught 
with  so  much  of  good  or  ill  to  the  sacred  cause  of  the  Union. 
Seizing  the  psychological  moment,  Owen  through  his  let- 
ter confirmed  Lincoln  in  the  wisdom  of  the  act  that  lay 
so  close  to  his  great  heart. 

With  a  diplomacy  in  keeping  with  the  great  mission 
upon  which  it  was  sent,  the  epistle  begins  with  an  assertion 
of  the  confidence  of  the  writer  in  the  one  whom  he  pur- 
posed to  rouse  to  action.  How  accurately  Owen  anticipates 
the  true  verdict  of  history  ! 

Harsh  opinions  have  been  formed  of  you ;  even  honest  men 
doubting  the  probity  of  your  intentions.  I  do  not  share  their 
doubts.  I  believe  you  to  be  upright,  single-hearted  in  your  de- 
sire to  rescue  the  country  in  the  hour  of  its  utmost  need,  with- 
out afterthought  of  the  personal  consequences  to  yourself. 

Though  from  the  beginning  of  the  war  an  ardent  ad- 
vocate of  the  manumission  of  the  slaves,  Owen  had  not 
been  disposed  to  increase  President  Lincoln's  burdens  by 
complaints  concerning  the  seemingly  slow  progress  toward 
that  end.  Better  than  his  radical  associates  he  had  under- 
stood Lincoln's  position  and  responsibility.  Out  of  the 
greatness  of  a  kindred  soul  he  declares : 

366 


BO  BERT   DALE    OWEN 

If  amid  the  multitude  of  contending  counsel  you  have 
hesitated  and  doubted;  if,  when  a  great  measure  suggested  it- 
self, you  have  shrunk  from  the  vast  responsibility,  afraid  to  go 
forward  lest  you  go  wrong,  what  wonder  ?  How  few  since  the 
foundation  of  the  world  have  found  themselves  environed 
with  public  perils  so  numerous,  oppressed  with  responsibili- 
ties so  high  and  solemn  as  yourself! 

Lincoln  had  undeniably  been  prudent  in  his  conduct  of 
the  war — too  prudent  in  the  judgment  of  many  over- 
anxious sons  of  the  N"orthland.  Did  he  possess  the  courage 
necessary  to  liberate  the  negro?  Anxiously  the  letter 
argues  that  daring  leadership  is  as  essential  as  cautious 
maneuver.  "  Wisdom,  prudence,  forethought,  these  are 
essential.  But  not  second  to  these  is  that  noble  courage 
which  adventures  the  right  and  leaves  the  consequences  to 
God.  .  .  .  There  is  a  measure  needing  courage  to 
adopt  and  enforce  it,  which  I  believe  to  be  of  virtue  suflB- 
cient  to  redeem  the  nation  in  this  its  darkest  hour,  one 
only.  I  know  of  no  other  to  which  we  may  rationally  trust 
for  relief  from  impending  dangers  within  and  without.^' 

In  1858,  during  his  memorable  debate  with  Douglas, 
Lincoln,  preferring  to  be  right  rather  than  to  be  senator, 
proclaimed  that  "  a  house  divided  against  itself  can  not 
stand.  I  believe  this  Government  can  not  endure  perma- 
nently half-slave  and  half-free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  be  dissolved.  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  I 
do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  the 
one  thing  or  the  other."  By  these  words,  shrewd  but  sin- 
cere, the  Great  Commoner  built  a  platform  and  upon  it 
rode  in  triumph  through  the  White  House  doors.  Through 
him  as  the  concrete  exponent  of  its  attitude,  Lincoln's 
party  advocated  opposition  to  slavery  because  slavery  and 
freedom  can  not  abide  together,  no  interference  with  slav- 
ery in  the  South  but  bitter  resistance  to  the  spread  of  the 
institution  lest  freedom  be  overcome,  and  ultimate  aboli- 
tion of  the  system  as  the  only  terms  of  permanent  peace. 

367 


TEE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT  | 

i 
I 

Craftily  Owen's  letter  appeals  to  these  well-known  con-  i 

victions  of  the  President,  and  argues  that  war  has  strength-  i 

ened  the  logic  of  the  position  which  the  Chief  Executive  , 

assumed  in  his  senatorial  contest  with  the  "  Little  Giant "  | 

and  has  made  slavery  and  the  Union  forever  irreconcilable.  | 

"  Can  you  look  forward  to  the  peace  of  our  country  ' 

and  imagine  any  state  of  things  in  which,  with  slavery  still  I 

existing,  we  would  be  assured  of  permanent  peace  ?    I  can  j 

not.    We  can  constitutionally  extirpate  slavery  at  this  time,  j 
But  if  we  fail  to  do  this,  then,  unless  we  intend  hereafter 

to  violate  the  Constitution,  we  shall  have  a  fugitive  slave  ! 

law  in  operation  whenever  the  war  is  over.     Shall  the  ! 

North  have  sacrificed  a  hundred  thousand  lives  and  two  '. 

thousand  millions  of  treasure  to  come  to  that  at  last?  ; 

Not  even  a  guarantee  of  peace  purchased  at  so  enormous  a  j 

cost  ?    After  voluntary  exertions  on  the  part  of  our  people  i 

to  which  the  histor}^  of  the  world  furnishes  no  parallel,  is  i 

the  old  root  of  bitterness  still  to  remain  in  the  ground,  ^ 

to  sprout  and  bear  fruit  in  the  future  as  it  has  borne  fruit  ; 

in  the  past?    These  questions  are  addressed  to  you.    For  I 

upon  you  and  your  action  more  than  any  other  one  thing  j 

does  the  answer  depend."  '\ 

Declaring  the  institution   of   slavery  to  be  not  only  > 

morally  wrong,  but  the  one  vulnerable  point  in  the  armor  j 

of  the  enemy,  Owen  maintains  that  the  time  has  come  when  ! 
it  is  constitutional  for  the  Chief  Executive  to  strike  at  it. 

"  But  the  time  has  come  when  it  is  constitutional  to 
redress  it.  The  rebellion  has  made  it  so.  Property  in  man, 
always  morally  unjust,  has  become  nationally  dangerous. 
Property  that  endangers  the  safety  of  a  nation  should  not 
be  suffered  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  its  citizens.  A  chief 
magistrate  who  permits  it  so  to  remain  becomes  responsible 
for  the  consequences.  For  he  has  the  right,  under  the  law 
and  the  Constitution,  to  take  private  property,  with  just 
compensation  offered,  for  public  use,  w^henever  it  is  ap- 
parent that  public  exigency  demands  such  appropriation. 

368 


no  BERT  DALE   OWEN 

Forgive  what  may  seem  curt  speech  if  I  say  that,  in  my 
judgment,  a  President  with  a  just  sense  of  duty  has  no 
option  in  such  a  case." 

Though  convinced  that  Lincoln  was  unselfishly  seeking 
the  salvation  of  the  country  "  without  afterthought  of  the 
personal  consequences  to  himself,"  Owen,  in  his  over- 
mastering desire  to  secure  the  immediate  liberation  of 
the  negro,  does  not  neglect  to  hold  up  before  the  eyes  of  the 
President  the  personal  fame  which,  through  the  exercise  of 
his  power  as  military  dictator,  he  may  reap  by  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery. 

"  It  is  within  your  power  at  this  very  moment  not  only 
to  consummate  an  act  of  enlightened  statesmanship,  but, 
as  the  instrument  of  the  Almighty,  to  restore  to  freedom  a 
race  of  men.  If  you  are  tempted  by  an  imperishable  name, 
it  is  within  your  reach.  We  may  look  through  ancient  and 
modern  history,  yet  scarce  find  a  sovereign  to  whom  God 
offered  the  privilege  of  bestowing  on  humanity  a  boon  so 
vast.  Such  an  offer  comes  to  no  human  being  twice.  It 
is  made  to  you  to-day.  How  long  it  will  remain  open — 
whether  in  three  months  or  in  one  month  from  now  it  will 
still  be  in  your  option  to  accept  it — God,  who  reads  the 
hearts  of  men,  alone  knows." 

Owen  had  purposely  timed  his  written  exhortation  to 
the  President  so  that  it  might  come  into  his  hands  near 
the  close  of  the  sixty-day  notice  to  the  Confederates,  which 
terminated  on  the  23d  of  September,  1862.  The  Southern 
States  ignored  the  notice.  No  one  expected  them  to  do 
otherwise.  There  was  much  speculation  both  north  and 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  as  to  what  measure,  if 
any,  Lincoln  would  adopt  at  the  close  of  the  period  of 
warning  in  order  to  punish  the  Confederacy  for  the  con- 
tempt with  which  his  proclamation  had  been  received. 
Owen,  sharing  in  the  general  interest  and  anxiety,  hopes 
that  the  Great  Commoner  may  make  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  the  weapon  of  punishment. 
25  369 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

"The  TWENTY-THIED  OF  SEPTEMBER  ap- 
proaches— the  date  when  the  sixty-day  notice  you  have 
given  the  rebels  will  expire — expire  without  other  reply 
to  your  warning  than  the  invasion  of  Maryland  and  a 
menace  to  Pennsylvania.  Is  it  to  rest  there?  Patiently 
we  have  waited  the  time.  Is  nothing  to  follow  ?  Are  our 
enemies  to  boast  that  we  speak  brave  words — and  there 
an  end  of  it  ?  " 

With  a  prophetic  soul,  born  of  his  own  intense  convic- 
tions upon  all  questions  involving  human  rights,  the 
younger  Owen,  looking  into  the  future,  describes  to  the 
Chief  Executive  the  great  day  in  the  calendar  which  the 
act  of  manumission  would  establish.  His  description  of 
Emancipation  Day  seems  retrospective  rather  than  pro- 
spective. 

"  What  a  day,  if  you  but  will  it,  may  that  twenty-third 
of  September  become!  The  very  turning-point  in  the 
nation's  fate !  A  day  to  the  rebels  of  despair,  to  every  loyal 
heart  of  exultant  rejoicing !  A  day  of  which  the  anniver- 
sary ^w^ill  be  celebrated  with  jubilee  while  the  American 
Union  endures !  A  day  to  be  remembered  not  in  our  land 
alone,  but  wherever  humanity  mourns  over  the  wrongs  of 
the  slaves  or  rejoices  in  their  liberation !  You  are  the  first 
President  to  whom  the  opportunity  was  ever  offered  con- 
stitutionally to  inaugurate  such  a  day.  If  you  fail  us  now, 
you  may  be  the  last.'' 

Having  demonstrated  both  the  necessity  and  the  pres- 
ent legality  of  the  act  of  emancipation,  Owen  concludes 
his  remarkable  appeal  to  Lincoln  by  an  eloquent  exhorta- 
tion so  earnest  as  to  be  almost  pathetic.  How  it  must 
have  touched  responsive  heart-strings  in  the  tender  soul 
of  the  Great  Commoner ! 

"Lift  then  the  weight  from  the  heart  of  this  people. 
Let  us  breathe  free  once  more.  Extirpate  the  blighting 
curse,  a  living  threat  throughout  long  years  past,  that  has 
smitten  at  last  with  desolation  a  land  to  which  God  had 

370 


BO  BEET  DALE   OWEN 

granted  everything  but  wisdom  and  justice.  Give  back  to 
the  nation  its  hope  and  faith  in  a  future  of  peace  and  un- 
disturbed prosperity.  Fulfil — ^you  can  more  than  fulfil — 
the  brightest  anticipations  of  those  who,  in  the  name  of 
human  freedom,  and  in  the  face  of  threats  that  have 
ripened  into  terrible  realities  since,  fought  the  battle  which 
placed  you  where  you  now  stand.^' 

Some  one  has  described  this  masterpiece  of  Eobert 
Dale  Owen^s  as  "  an  ever-enduring  monument  of  dispas- 
sionate, well-reasoned,  perfectly  poised  deductions,  at  a 
very  critical  time  in  the  life  of  a  great  nation.^'  To  this 
day  the  reader  of  his  eloquent  appeal  finds  himself  stirred 
by  the  simple  power  of  this  great  paper.  "  Its  perusal 
thrilled  me  like  a  trumpet-call,"  said  President  Lincoln. 
^'  It  will  be  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  you  to  know,"  wrote 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  Mr.  Owen, 
"  that  your  letter  to  the  President  had  more  influence  on 
him  than  any  other  document  which  reached  him  on  the 
subject — I  think  I  might  say  than  all  others  put  together. 
I  speak  of  that  which  I  know  from  personal  conference 
with  him."  While  it  did  not  turn  Abraham  Lincoln  to  a 
course  upon  which  he  had  long  been  vaguely  determined, 
it  strengthened  him  in  his  great  purpose,  and  precipitated 
the  Preliminary  Proclamation,  which  was  issued  five  days 
after  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Owen's  letter.  After  the  lapse  of 
thirty  years  Providence  had  given  to  the  two  emigrants 
from  the  Pocket  an  opportunity  to  strike  the  valiant  blow 
against  human  slavery  which  they  had  vowed.  Gloriously 
did  they  discharge  that  ancient  resolution. 

New  England  was  the  head  and  front  of  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  during  ante-bellum  da3^s.  Before  South 
Carolina  seceded,  the  Southern  leaders  proposed  to  recon- 
struct the  Union,  leaving  out  the  New  England  States. 
"  The  South,  abandoning  her  avowed  intention  to  erect  a 
separate  purely  slaveholding  Confederacy,  is  to  consent 
to  receive  into  her  fellowship  a  portion  of  the  Northern 

371 


THE  NEW   HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

States.  The  Northern  States  in  return  are  to  abandon  six 
of  their  number:  those  six  in  which  the  opinions  against 
which  the  war  is  waged  chiefly  prevail." 

When  the  entire  North  rose  in  arms  after  the  firing  on 
Fort  Sumter  this  plan  of  reconstruction  was  temporarily 
abandoned.  But  when  the  congressional  elections  of  1862 
seemed  to  result  adversely  to  the  administration ;  when  the 
timid,  discouraged  by  the  prolongation  of  the  struggle, 
cried  out  for  "  Peace  at  any  cost,"  and  the  disloyal,  em- 
boldened by  the  stubbornness  of  the  Southern  resistance, 
gave  increased  encouragement  and  comfort  to  the  enemy 
in  arms,  the  leaders  of  the  Confederacy,  their  cause  already 
sinking,  as  a  last  desperate  maneuver  revived  the  scheme 
of  reconstruction  and  compromise  which  hostilities  had  in- 
terrupted. Through  secret  emissaries  the  proposition  to 
reorganize  the  Union  was  carried  to  every  Northern  State 
save  the  New  England  group,  where  it  met  with  active  sup- 
port from  the  discouraged  and  the  disloyal. 

In  Indiana  the  fall  election  of  1862  had  placed  all  the 
State  offices,  save  that  of  governor  and  both  branches  of  the 
State  Legislature,  in  the  hands  of  the  Peace  Party.  That 
legislature  passed  resolutions  opposing  the  further  con- 
tinuance of  the  war,  refused  to  receive  Governor  Morton's 
annual  message,  and  sought  to  enact  laws  limiting  his 
power  to  manage  the  militia  of  the  State,  to  prevent  which 
the  Union  members  of  the  legislature  retired  to  Madison, 
Indiana,  where  they  remained  until  the  term  closed  by  con- 
stitutional limitation.  Many  members  of  the  legislature, 
some  of  them  openly — most  of  them,  however,  secreth^ — 
strongly  favored  the  scheme  of  reconstruction  of  the 
Union  with  New  England  left  out:  a  few  because  its 
adoption  would  aid  the  South;  the  rest  because  its  adop- 
tion would  consummate  the  peace  for  which  they  clamored. 

Alarmed  by  the  evident  strength  of  the  reconstruction 
sentiment  in  his  native  State,  .Mr.  Owen,  though  pre- 
vented by  his  duties  as  head  of  the  Freedman's  Commis- 


172 


D.   D.    OWEN, 


ROBERT  DALE   OWEN 

sion  from  visiting  the  object  of  his  solicitude,  printed  for 
gratuitous  distribution  and  circulated  among  its  citizens  a 
pamphlet  dated  March  4,  1863,  entitled  The  Future  of 
the  Northwest,  in  which  with  unanswerable  logic  he  de- 
monstrates the  folly  of  dismembering  the  North  and  ac- 
cepting the  slaveholders'  project.  In  this  pamphlet  Mr. 
Owen  argues  with  irresistible  force: 

(1)  That  the  Compromise  plan  for  the  reconstruction 
of  the  Union  was  revived  by  the  secessionists  "  as  a  specious 
and  daring  device  to  uphold  a  sinking  cause/' 

(2)  That  the  Compromise,  if  consummated,  would 
create  an  alliance  much  more  advantageous  to  the  slave- 
holding  States  than  either  the  old  Union  they  were  en- 
deavoring to  destroy  or  the  present  Confederacy  which  they 
were  seeking  in  vain  to  establish  by  force  of  arms. 

(3)  That  Compromise  would  create  an  alliance  com- 
pletely dominated  by  slavery.  "  Look  at  it,  I  pray  you, 
not  vaguely  or  hastily  but  carefully  and  in  all  its  practical 
details.  In  the  Senate  thirty  Southern  votes  to  twenty-two 
Northern,  in  the  House  ninety  Southern  votes  to  one  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  Northern.  One  House  hopelessly  gone 
while  twelve  votes  changed  would  give  a  Southern  majority 
in  the  other.  And  when  has  Congress  seen  the  day  when 
twice  twelve  votes  could  not  have  been  had  from  Northern 
representatives  for  any  measure  the  South  saw  fit  to  pro- 
pose ? "  "  Just  North  enough  in  the  scheme  to  afford 
protection  and  support  to  slavery,  and  not  North  enough 
to  exert  over  it  the  slightest  influence  or  control." 

The  invitation  extended  to  the  citizens  of  Indiana  by 
the  scheme  of  reconstruction  was  given  on  conditions,  some 
of  them  expressed  and  some  implied. 

(1)  "The  first  was  that  throughout  this  slave  empire 
no  man  shall  be  allowed  to  deny  the  great  physical,  philo- 
sophical, and  moral  truth  upon  which  the  new  government 
is  founded ;  namely,  that  slavery  is  the  natural  and  moral 
condition  of  the  African  negro." 

373 


TEE  NEW  HARMONY  MOVEMENT 

(2)  The  second  was  .  .  .  that  the  North  before 
it  is  admitted  to  Southern  fellowship  shall  cast  off  six  of 
her  States;  thus  curtailing  her  power  and  her  possessions 
by  the  surrender  of  nearly  one-fifth  of  her  population  and 
more  than  one-fifth  of  her  wealth. 

(3)  The  third  was  that  slavery  would  be  practised  on 
all  the  soil  within  the  new  alliance.  "  It  is  not  more  cer- 
tain that  the  earth  will  continue  to  revolve  around  the  sun, 
than  that  the  South,  while  slaveholding,  will  persevere, 
whenever  and  wherever  she  obtains  the  political  ascend- 
ency, in  asserting  and  enforcing  by  law  what  she  regards 
as  her  political  rights  in  this  matter." 

(4)  The  fourth  was  that  the  new  alliance  shall  shoul- 
der the  expense  of  the  war  which  the  proposed  Compromise 
sought  to  dishonorably  terminate.  "  The  Southern  insur- 
rection will  have  cost  its  authors  a  thousand  millions  at 
the  least.  Can  any  man  doubt  that  the  North  once  en- 
trapped into  this  base  compact  will  be  held  to  pay  her  full 
share  of  that  stupendous  sum  ?  " 

If  Indiana  accepted  the  proposed  Compromise,  the 
commonwealth  must  not  only  submit  to  the  domination  of 
the  slaveholders,  but  she  must  repent  every  act  committed 
by  her  brave  sons  in  defense  of  the  Union.  Owen  puts  it 
thus :  "  If  we  take  this  step  we  must  consent  to  repent- 
ance as  well  as  submission.  Before  the  world  our  acts 
must  declare  that  from  the  first  we  were  in  the  wrong  and 
the  South  in  the  right.  Before  the  world  our  acts  must 
declare  that  a  hundred  thousand  brave  men  have  sunk 
from  the  battle-field  to  the  grave — all  in  a  disgraceful 
warfare,  all  in  an  iniquitous  cause." 

Declaring  that  the  thinned  ranks  of  a  hundred  In- 
diana regiments  at  the  front  would  never  submit  to  a 
compromise  by  which  their  achievements  would  be  dis- 
credited and  their  loyalty  degraded,  Owen  closes  with  a 
picture  of  the  awful  fate  in  store  for  the  beloved  common- 
wealth to  which  "  he  owed  honorable  station  and  a  debt  of 

374 


ROBERT   DALE   OWEN 

gratitude/'  should  she  out  of  either  disloyalty  or  cowardice 
accept  the  proposition  of  the  slave  States.  "  Let  Indiana, 
belying  the  courage  she  has  shown  on  the  battle-field,  cast- 
ing from  her  the  last  remnant  of  self-respect,  false  to  her 
constitutional  obligations,  blind  to  a  future  of  abject  ser- 
vility, deaf  alike  to  the  warnings  of  revolutionary  wisdom 
and  to  the  voice  of  civilization  speaking  to-day  in  her  ears 
— let  Indiana,  selling  Freedom's  birthright  for  less  than 
Esau's  price,  resolve  to  purchase  Southern  favor  by  North- 
ern dismemberment  and  the  world-wide  contempt  that 
would  follow  it — but  let  her  know,  before  she  enters  that 
path  of  destruction,  that  her  road  will  lie  over  the  bodies 
of  her  murdered  sons,  past  prostrate  cabins,  past  ruined 
farms,  through  all  the  desolation  that  fire  and  sword  can 
work.  Let  her  know  that  before  she  can  link  her  fate  to 
a  system  that  is  as  surely  doomed  to  ultimate  extinction  as 
the  human  body  is  finally  destined  to  death,  there  will 
be  a  war  within  her  own  borders  to  which  all  we  have 
yet  endured  will  be  but  as  the  summer's  gale,  that  scat- 
ters a  few  branches'  over  the  highway,  compared  to  the 
hurricane  that  plows  its  broad  path  of  ruin,  mile  after 
mile,  leaving  behind  in  its  track  a  prostrate  forest,  har- 
vest crops  uprooted  and  human  habitations  overthrown." 
Owen's  pamphlet,  circulated  broadcast  through  Indiana 
and  the  Northwest,  exerted  a  wide  influence,  especially 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  came  from  one  opposed  polit- 
ically to  the  party  in  power  in  all  but  the  desire  to  pre- 
serve the  Union. 

Near  the  close  of  the  war  the  Freedman's  Bureau  was 
established  as  a  branch  of  the  U.  S.  War  Department 
and  Mr.  Owen  appointed  as  its  secretary  and  real  executive 
o£5cer.  This  new  bureau  controlled  all  affairs  "  relating 
to  refugees  and  freedmen  from  any  district  embraced 
within  the  territory  covered  by  the  operations  of  the  army." 
It  provided  work  for  the  freedmen,  established  schools  for 
their  education,  and  guarded  their  rights.     Mr.  Owen's 

375 


THE   NEW   HARMONY   MOVEMENT 

labors  in  behalf  of  the  negro  while  connected  with  the 
bureau  entitle  him  to  the  gratitude  of  the  colored  race. 

Though  he  was  the  devoted  friend  of  the  black  man, 
Mr.  Owen  strenuously  opposed  the  scheme  to  bestow  im- 
mediate suffrage  upon  the  newly  made  f reedmen  at  the  close 
of  the  war.  In  the  winter  of  1865-66  Mr.  Owen  was  in 
Washington  anxiously  watching  for  legislation  favorable  for 
the  negro,  and  he  prepared  a  fourteenth  amendment  to  the 
Constitution,  providing  for  negro  suffrage  to  begin  July  4, 
1876.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  then  chairman  of  the  reconstruc- 
tion committee,  favored  immediate  negro  suffrage,  but  he 
was  persuaded  to  adopt  Mr.  Owen's  views,  and  presented  his 
amendment  to  the  committee.  It  was  adopted  by  the  com- 
mittee and  ordered  reported ;  but  as  Mr.  Fessenden  was  ill 
with  the  varioloid  it  was  deemed  best  to  reconsider  this 
action  and  postpone  the  matter  until  he  could  be  present. 
In  the  meantime  protest  was  made  against  the  amendment, 
and  the  result  was  that  the  fourteenth  amendment  was 
adopted  without  any  allusion  to  the  question  of  suffrage, 
and  nothing  was  done  about  suffrage  till  the  fifteenth 
amendment  was  adopted  several  years  later.  Mr.  Owen 
told  the  story  in  an  article  entitled  The  Political  Kesults 
of  the  Varioloid. 

Eobert  Dale  Owen  died  June  24,  1877.  For  a  period 
before  his  death  "  his  mind  was  deranged  by  overwork — 
deranged,  but  not  obscured — for  during  several  months' 
residence  in  the  hospital  for  the  insane  his  mental  powers 
were  incessantly  active  and  brilliant,  though  touched  by 
grotesque  shapes.  Happily  he  regained  his  mental  sound- 
ness, but  did  not  long  survive,  dying  at  the  ripe  age  of 
seventy-three." 

"  What  was  said  of  him  in  one  of  the  newspapers,''  said 
Mr.  John  H.  Holliday,  in  a  paper  written  some  years  ago, 
"  seems  to  me  to  hold  good  still :  '  In  scholarship,  general 
attainments,  varied  achievements;  as  author,  statesman, 
politician,  and  leader  of  a  new  religious  faith,  he  was  un- 

376 


ROBERT   DALE    OWEN 

questionably  the  most  prominent  man  Indiana  ever  owned. 
Others  may  fill  now,  or  may  have  filled,  a  larger  place  in 
public  interest  or  curiosity  for  a  time,  but  no  other  Hoosier 
was  ever  so  widely  known,  or  so  likel}^  to  do  the  State  credit 
by  being  known,  and  no  other  has  ever  before  held  so 
prominent  a  place  so  long,  with  a  history  so  unspotted  by 
selfishness,  duplicity,  or  injustice.' " 

With  the  death  of  Robert  Dale  Owen  the  last  of  the 
great  figures  conspicuous  in  the  Xew  Harmony  commu- 
nisms passed  away,  but  the  great  movements  to  which  they 
had  given  origin  and  direction  still  sweep  onward  in  an 
ever-widening  current. 


377 


APPENDIX 


SOURCES 


^^  The  New  Harmony  Communities  "  was  taken  as  a 
research  topic  in  1893  by  the  author  as  a  member  of  the 
seminarium  of  political  science  at  DePauw  University,  and 
was  followed  during  his  senior  college  year  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Colonel  James  Riley  Weaver,  Director  of  the  semi- 
narium, whose  helpful  suggestions  have  contributed  mate- 
rially to  whatever  success  may  have  attended  the  effort  to 
complete  a  thorough  study  of  the  social  experiments  at 
New  Harmony.  The  initial  work  was  done  in  the  library  of 
the  Working  Men's  Institute  at  New  Harmony  during  the 
summer  of  1893,  and  a  visit  was  made  to  the  same  library 
in  1896.  The  secretary  of  the  institute,  Mr.  Arthur  Drans- 
field^  has  for  years  been  collecting  with  commendable  care 
all  the  material  obtainable  with  reference  to  the  history 
of  the  Rappite  and  Owenite  experiments,  sparing  neither 
trouble  nor  expense  to  make  this  collection  complete.  He 
has  cooperated  with  the  writer  in  his  search  for  data,  has 
made  frequent  corrections  and  suggestions,  and  under  Mr. 
Dransfield's  supervision  the  collection  of  photographs  which 
form  the  basis  for  the  illustrations  in  this  volume  was 
made.  Considerable  work  was  done  in  the  Indiana  State 
library  at  Indianapolis,  where  valuable  material  was  found 
and  rendered  available  through  the  courtesy  of  the  former 
State  librarian,  Miss  N.  E.  Ahem,  and  the  present  libra- 

379 


APPENDIX 

rian,  Mr.  TV.  E.  Henry.  The  paucity  of  material  in  the 
Library  of  Congress  at  Washington  served  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  the  story  of  the  New  Harmony  experiments  had 
become  a  lost  chapter  in  the  history  of  American  social 
reform  movements.  Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Librarian 
of  Congress,  Mr.  Herbert  Putnam,  and  the  librarian  of 
Yale  University,  Dr.  A.  VanName,  the  Macdonald  manu- 
script, which  forms  a  part  of  the  Yale  collection,  was  tem- 
porarily transferred  to  the  Library  of  Congress  and  used 
under  the  supervision  of  the  manuscript  division.  The 
Macdonald  manuscript  is  a  history  of  the  earlier  commu- 
nistic experiments  in  America,  and  the  familiarity  of  the 
author  with  the  Owenite  communities  rendered  this  mate- 
rial especially  valuable. 

In  the  New  Harmony  library,  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing book  collections  in  the  country,  the  files  of  the  New 
Harmony  Gazette,  a  weekly  paper  published  throughout 
the  lifetime  of  the  Owenite  experiment  as  the  organ  of  the 
movement,  was  found  the  most  prolific  source  of  informa- 
tion. The  scrap-books  of  Eichard  Owen  and  Mrs.  Arthur 
Dransfield,  the  letters  and  papers  of  Josiah  Warren,  the 
community  account-books,  and  the  letters,  wills,  and  deeds 
of  William  Maclure,  were  also  found  in  the  New  Harmony 
library.  From  Dr.  Aaron  Williams's  book  on  "  The  Har- 
monists,'^ the  author  has  drawn  liberally,  this  being  the 
only  authoritative  publication  on  the  history  of  the  Eapp- 
ites.  Acknowledgments  are  due  to  Mr.  John  Holliday, 
of  Indianapolis,  who  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  writer 
data  collected  in  a  study  of  the  New  Harmony  communities 
some  years  ago. 

The  chapter  on  Josiah  Warren,  as  shown  by  the  foot- 
note, is  the  production  of  Mr.  William  Bailie,  of  Boston, 
who  has  through  several  years  prosecuted  a  study  of  the 
life-work  of  the  founder  of  the  philosophy  of  individualism. 
Mr.  Charles  A.  Prosser,  of  New  Albany,  Indiana,  col- 
laborated in  the  preparation  of  the  chapters  bearing  on  the 

380 


APPENDIX 

educational  phases  and  relations  of  the  New  Harmony 
movement. 

A  list  of  the  more  important  manuscript  and  book 
sources  is  appended.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  cata- 
logue the  great  mass  of  fragmentary  material  found  in 
magazines  and  newspaper  articles: 

The  Harmonists,  or  The  New  Harmony  Society, — Aaron  Williams, 
D.  D.,  1866. 

History  of  American  Socialisms. — John  Humphrey  Noyes,  1870. 

History  of  New  Harmony,  Indiana:  The  Rappites. — Dr.  J.  Schnack 
and  Richard  Owen. — Pamphlet,  1890. 

Conmaunistic  Societies  of  the  United  States. — Charles  Nordhoff,  1875. 

Two  Years'  Residence  in  the  Settlement  on  the  Enghsh  Prairie  in 
the  Illinois  County,  U.  S. — John  Woods,  London.     1822. 

Travels  in  North  America. — Charles  Lyell,  F.  R.  S.,  1845. 

History  of  the  English  Settlement  in  Edwards  County,  Illinois. — 
George  Fowler,  1882. 

American  Communities. — ^William  Alfred  Hines,  1878. 

A  Journey  in  America. — Morris  Birkbeck,  London,  1818. 

Brief  Sketch  of  New  Harmony. — Library  Catalogue  of  Working 
Men's  Institute,  1845. 

Visit  to  New  Harmony. — ^William  Herbert,  London,  1825. 

Life  of  Robert  Owen. — Lloyd  Jones,  1890. 

Socialism,  By  a  Socialist. — Charles  P.  Somerby,  1879. 

History  of  Cooperation. — George  Jacob  Holyoke,  1878. 

Speech  at  New  Harmony,  April  27,  1825. — Robert  Owen. 

Two  Discourses  on  a  New  System  of  Society. — Delivered  in  the 
Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives. — Robert  Owen,  Pitts- 
burg, 1825. 

Twenty-three  Lectures  on  the  Rational  System  of  Society. — Deliv- 
ered in  Egj'^ptian  Hall,  Piccadilly. — Robert  Owen,  London,  1841. 

Owen's  Universal  Revolution,  With  Supplement. — Robert  Owen, 
London,  1849. 

Lectures  on  the  New  State  of  Society. — Robert  Owen,  London,  1842, 

New  Religion. — Lecture. — Robert  Owen,  London,  1830. 

The  Addresses  of  Robert  Owen,  as  Published  in  the  London  Jour- 
nal.— London,  1835. 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Association  for  the  Relief  of 
the  Manufacturing  and  Laboring  Poor  to  the  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons. — London,  1825. 

381 


APPENDIX 

New  View  of  Society. — Lecture. — Robert  Owen,  London,  1842. 

Social  State  of  Man. — Robert  Owen,  London,  1842. 

Manifesto  of  Robert  Owen  to  Parliament. — London,  1840. 

The  Religious  Creed  of  the  New  System. — Abram  Combe,  Edin- 
burg,  1824. 

The  First  Trumpet. — An  Address  to  the  Disciples  of  Robert  Owen. 
— ^William  Cameron,  London,  1832. 

Life  and  Last  Days  of  Robert  Owen. — George  Jacob  Holyoke,  1871. 

The  Town  of  New  Harmony. — Proceedings  of  a  Meeting  of  the 
Inhabitants  held  April  13,  1842. — Tract. 

Memoir  of  William  Maclure. — Samuel  Geo.  Morton,  D.  D.,  1844. 

Communism  and  Socialism. — Theodore  D.  Woolsey,  1888. 

The  Cooperative  Movement  in  England. — Beatrice  Potter,  1891. 

The  Cooperative  Commonwealth. — Laurence  Gronlund,  1890. 

Richard  Owen's  Scrap-Book. 

Letters  and  Papers  of  Josiah  Warren, 

New  Harmony  Community  Account-Books. 

Journal  (MSS.)  Proceedings  of  Meetings  of  Working  Men's  Institute. 

Manuscript  Copy  of  Community  Dances. — Robert  Fauntleroy 

Scrap-Books  of  Mrs.  A.  Dransfield. 

Letters,  Wills,  and  Deeds  of  William  Maclure. 

The  New  Harmony  Gazette.  Vols.  I,  II,  and  III. — October  1,  1825, 
to  March  1,  1829. 

The  Disseminator.  New  Series,  Vols.  I  and  II.  Published  at  New 
Harmony,  1834-'35. — ^WilUam  Maclure,  Editor. 

The  Free  Enquirer.  Vols.  I-VI,  inclusive.  Published  at  Baltimore 
and  New  York. — Frances  Wright,  Robert  Dale  Owen,  and  Amos 
Gilbert,  Editors. 

The  Crisis.  Vols.  I  and  II,  1832-'34,  London.— Robert  Owen  and 
Robert  Dale  Owen,  Editors. 

The  Beacon.  Vol.  Ill,  Old  Series,  1838.  Vol.  I,  New  Series,  1839.— 
G.  Vale,  Editor. 

The  Disseminator.  "Containing  Hints  to  the  Youth  of  the  United 
States."  Old  Series.  Edited,  Printed,  and  Published  Semi- 
monthly by  the  Pupils  of  the  School  of  Industry,  New  Har- 
mony.    First  issue,  January  16,  1828. 

The  Indiana  Statesman.     May  13,  1842,  to  March  14,  1846. 

The  New  Moral  World.  Vols.  ItoVIL  London,  1834- '40.  Edited 
by  Robert  Owen  and  Disciples. 

The  Cooperative  Magazine  and  Monthly  Herald.     London,  1820. 

Southwestern  Sentinel.  Vol.  I,  No.  1.  EvansviUe,  February  28, 
1840. 

382 


APPENDIX 

Milleimial  Gazette,  London. — Robert  Owen,  Editor. 

Practical  Details  of  Equitable  Commerce. — Josiah  Warren,  Evans- 
viUe,  1835. 

Equitable  Commerce. — Josiah  Warren,  1835. 

Practical  Application  of  the  Elementary  Principles  of  True  Civiliza- 
tion.— Josiah  Warren,  1873. 

A  Few  Days  in  Athens. — Frances  Wright. 

Autobiography  of  Raffinesque. — Constantine  Raffinesque. 

A  Brief  History  of  Socialism  in  America. — Frederic  Heath,  1900. 

A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  V. — John  B. 
McMaster.     New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1900. 

Cooperative  Communities  in  the  United  States. — Rev.  Alexander 
Kent.     Bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  1901. 

Education. — Joseph  Neef,  Philadelphia,  1808. 

Neef 's  Method  of  Teaching. — Joseph  Neef,  Philadelphia,  1813. 

American  Conchology,  or  Description  of  the  Shells  of  North  Amer- 
ica. Illustrated  by  Colored  Figures  from  Originals,  Drawings 
Executed  from  Nature. — Thomas  Say,  F.  M.  L,  S.  Engravings 
drawn  and  colored  by  Mrs.  Say  and  C.  A.  LeSueur.  Engravings 
by  L.  Lyon,  C.  Tiebout,  and  I.  Walker. 

Course  of  Popular  Lectures. — Frances  Wright. 

Campbell  and  Owen  Debate.     Cincinnati,  1829. 

Reise  Durch  Nord  Amerika. — Alexander  Philip  MaximiUian.  Co- 
blentz,  1838,  1843.     London,  1843. 

Travels  Through  North  America. — His  Highness  Bemhard,  Duke 
of  Weimar,  Saxe,  and  Eisenach,     Philadelphia,  1828. 

Method  of  Science  Teaching  in  the  Colleges  and  Universities  of 
North  America. — C.  S.  RaflSnesque. 

Self-Help  a  Hundred  Years  Ago, — History  of  Cooperation  in  Eng- 
land.— George  Jacob  Holyoke. 

A  History  of  Socialism. — Thomas  Kirkup,  1892. 

Socialism,  Utopian  and  Scientific. — Frederick  Engels,  1892. 

Working  Class  Movement  in  America. — Edward  and  Eleanor  Marx 
Aveling,  1892. 

Socialism  in  England. — Sidney  Webb. 

Robert  Owen  and  His  Social  Philosophy. — Sargent. 

The  Manufacturing  Population  of  England. — Keel. 

Stories  of  Indiana. — Chapters  on  New  Harmony  and  Raflfinesque. — 
Maurice  Thompson. 

History  of  American  Education. — Richard  Boone. 

Pocahontas,  A  Drama;  Hints  on  Public  Architecture,  1840;  Foot- 
falls on  the  Boundary  of  Another  World,  1859 ;  Wrongs  of  Sla- 

383 


APPENDIX 

very:  The  Rights  of  Emancipation,  1864;  Beyond  the  Breakers, 
1870;  The  Debatable  Land  Between  this  World  and  the  Next, 
1871 ;  Threading  My  Way,  or  Twenty-Seven  Years  of  Autobi- 
ography, 1874. — Robert  Dale  Owen. 

United  States  Geological  Reports.     1838-'59. — David  Dale  Owen. 

Key  to  the  Geology  of  the  Globe. — Richard  Owen. 

American  Entomology. — Thomas  Say. 

Account  of  the  Doctrines  of  Charles  Fourier. — Parke  Godwin. 

Recent  American  Socialisms. — Richard  T.  Ely. 

Essay  on  Robert  Owen. — Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

Science  Sketches. — David  Starr  Jordan.     Chapter  on  Raffinesque- 

Comparative  Socialism.     Chapter  II, — ^Woodrow  Wilson. 

Letters  and  Lectures  of  Robert  Dale  Owen. — Richard  D.  Owen. 

Twelve  Months  in  New  Harmonj\ — Paul  Brown,  1827. 

Higher  Education  of  Women. — Lange.  New  York :  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  1890. 

Journal  Indiana  House  of  Representatives,  Twenty-second  Session, 
1836-'37. 

Journal  Indiana  House  of  Representatives,  Twenty- third  Session, 
1837-'38. 

Journal  Indiana  House  of  Representatives,  Thirty-sixth  Session, 
1851-'52. 

Debates  Second  Indiana  Constitutional  Convention,  two  volumes. 

Journal  Second  Indiana  Constitutional  Convention,  two  volumes. 

History  of  Woman  Suffrage,  three  volumes. — E.  C.  Stanton,  S.  B. 
Anthony,  M.  J.  Gage,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  1887. — Charles 
Mann. 

Education  in  Indiana,  a  monograph  prepared  by  State  Superintend- 
ent F.  A.  Cotton  for  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition. — In- 
dianapolis, W.  B.  Burford,  1904. 

The  History  of  Modern  Education. — S.  G.  Williams.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
C.  W.  Bardeen,  1903. 

Education  in  the  United  States. — Edited  by  Nicholas  Murray  Butler. 
Albany,  J.  B.  Lyon  Co.,  1900. 

The  V/rong  of  Slavery  and  the  Right  of  Emancipation. — Robert 
Dale  Owen.     Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  1864. 

Maclure's  Opinions  on  Various  Subjects,  three  volumes.  New  Har- 
mony Industrial  Schools  Press,  1834. 

A  Proper  System  of  Education  for  the  Schools  of  a  Free  People. — 
Joseph  Neef,  1807. 

The  Meaning  of  Education. — Nicholas  Murray  Butler.  The  Mac- 
miUan  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1901. 

384 


APPENDIX 

Pestalozzi:  His  Life  and  Work.    De  Guimps. — New  York:  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  1890. 
Pestalozzi:  His  Life,  Work,  and  Influence.     Cincinnati,  Ohio:  Van 

Antwerp,  Bragg  &  Co.,  1875. 
A  History  of  Education  in  Indiana. — R.  G.  Boone.     New  York:  D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  1892. 
Indiana  Libraries,  1904,  Monograph  by  W.  E.  Henry,  State  Librarian 

for  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition. 
Pamphlet  on  the  Maclure  Libraries  by  Jacob  Piatt  Dunn,  State 

Libr*inan,  1893. 
Quick's  Educational  Reformers.     New  York:    D.  Appleton  &  Co., 

1890. 
Education  in  the  United  States. — R.  G.  Boone.     New  York:   D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  1890. 
School  Law  of  Indiana,  1901. — F.  L.  Jones,  ex-State  Superintendent 

of  Public  Instruction. 
Johonnot's  Principles  and  Practise  of  Teaching.      New  York:   D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 
Thoughts. — Horace  Mann.     Boston:   Lee,  Shepard  &  Dillingham, 

1872. 
Synopsis  Minutes  Minerva  Society. — Arthur  Dransfield. 
A  Vindication  of  the   Rights  of  Woman. — Mary  Wollstonecraft. 

New  York:  Scribner  &  Welford,  1890. 
Scheme  for  the  Reconstruction  of  the  Union  with  New  England 

Left  Out. — Pamphlet  by  Robert  Dale  Owen,  1863.     New  Har- 
mony Library. 
The  Perils  and  Exigencies  of  the  Present  Crisis. — ^Address  by  R.  D. 

Owen  to  Citizens  of  Indiana,  State  House,  Indianapolis,  1860. 


26  385 


INDEX 

COMPILED  BY  JENNIE  M.   ELROD 
Reference  Librarian,  Indiana   State   Library 


Abolition,    See   Slavery. 

Adams,  17.  S.  constitution,  66. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  Smithson 
bequest,  339. 

Agassiz,  Prof.,  Pestalozzian  move- 
ment, 292. 

Agriculture,  Agricultural  and  pas- 
toral society  formed,  147;  basis 
of  communism,  118;  coopera- 
tive association  of  Wainborough, 
HI.,  121;  school  for,  74;  super- 
intendent of,  113. 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  Owen  presents 
memorial,  57. 

Alexandria,  Leon  absconds  to,  33. 

Alicante  (Spain)  agricultural 
school,  74. 

Allen,  WilHam,  accuses  Owen  of 
infidelity,  51. 

Amanaites,  increase  in  value  of 
land,  38. 

Amana  society,  family  system  in, 
39;  wealth,  39. 

America,  Rappites  prosperity  in, 
13. 

"American  Conchology,"  printed 
at  New  Harmony,  76. 

American  museum  of  natural  his- 
tory, D.  D.  Owen's  geological 
collection,  317;  Maximilian  col- 
lection of  birds,  316. 

Americans,  jealous  of  Rappites, 
23;  Owen's  criticism  of,  123. 

Amusements,  at  New  Harmony, 
93,  99,  100,  125,  126,  129,  134- 
136;  intimacy  not  created  by, 
148;  Paul  Brown's  criticism  of, 
139. 

Andrews,  Stephen  Peari,  disciple 
of  Warren's,  302. 

Anthony,  Siisan  B.,  tribute  to 
Mary  Owen,  203,  204;  woman's 
suffrage,  187,  188. 


Arbitration,  Owen  recommends, 
90;  provided  for  at  Feiba  Peveh, 
115,  116. 

Arkansas,  State  geologist  of,  319. 

Arndt,  7. 

Asylums,  for  aflSicted,  65. 

Audubon,  description  of  Raffin- 
esque,  78;  visited  New  Har- 
mony, 320. 

Ayre,  Scotland,  birthplace  of 
Maclure,  74. 


Baboef,  45. 

Bacon,  teaching  of,  221. 

Baihe,  WiUiam,  Warren,  chapter 
on,  294. 

Baker,  R.  L.,  Rapp's  successor, 
34. 

Ballou,  Adin,  tribute  to  Owen,  308, 
309. 

Beal,  177. 

Beaver  county,  Penn.,  village  of 
Economy  in,  32. 

Beizelites,  reason  for  decline,  40. 

Bennett,  177. 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  guardian  of 
Frances  and  Camilla  Wright, 
193. 

Bethel  community,  33. 

Bimeler,  Joseph,  founder  of  Zoar, 
8. 

Birds,  collection  of  Prince  Maxi- 
milian von  Neuweid,  316. 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  colony  planted 
by,  128;  descendants  of,  177; 
drowned,  177;  Harmonic  de- 
scribed, 23,  24. 

Blankenburg,  Froebel's  school  at, 
215    220. 

Bloomington  (Ind.),  158,  317. 

Blue  Springs  community,  158,  177. 

Boarding  schools,  centralization  of 


387 


INDEX 


schools,  270-272;  English,  218, 
258;  New  Harmony,  93,  236, 
243,  244,  246;  provision  for,  in 
Preliminary  Society,  89;  self- 
supporting,  254,  269,  270,  281; 
Spartan  system  of  education, 
267-269,  282,  283. 

"Boat  load  of  knowledge,"  81, 
104,  236. 

Bodmer,  315. 

Bolton,  177. 

Bolton,  Samuel,  chemist,  319. 

Bonaparte,  Prince  Charles  Lucian, 
Say  edits  publications,  76. 

Boone,  infant  school,  first,  286; 
technical  schools,  early,  245. 

Borrowdale  and  Atkinson,  Owen's 
partners,  48. 

Boston,  girls'  schools  in,  240. 

Boston  Women's  Club,  196. 

Botany,  fossil,  318;  researches  of 
Raffinesque,  78,  79. 

Boutwell,  George,  Pestalozzian 
movement,  292. 

Braunberg,  Baron.  See  Neuweid, 
Prince  Maximihan  Alexander 
Philipp. 

Brentwood,  Modern  Times,  later 
name,  303. 

Brook  Farm,  hfe  in,  134;  Modem 
Times,  unhke,  305;  Nashoba 
similar  to,  195;  New  Harmony 
compared  to,  2,  3. 

Brown,  177. 

Brown,  John,  197. 

Brown,  Paul,  criticizes  conditions 
at  New  Harmony,  147-149,  157, 
158;  criticizes  Owen,  184;  New 
Harmony,  experiences  at,  137- 
140;  New  Harmony  Gazette  re- 
fuses essays  by,  149;  opposes 
New  Harmony  management, 
145. 

Buchanan,  infant  school  at  New 
Lanark,  216,  217,  223;  fore- 
runner of  Froebel,  286,  287. 

Burkitt,  Rev.  John,  191. 

Biu-t,  C.  W.,  New  Harmony  failure, 
184. 

Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  educa- 
tion, meaning  of,  276 ;  education- 
al period,  282 ;  rehgious  instruc- 
tion in  the  pubhc  schools,  228 . 


Cabet,  2. 

Campanella,  2. 

Campbell,  Alexander,  criticism  of 


New  Harmony,  82,  83;  debate 
with  Owen,  307,  308. 

Carnegie,  Mr.,  Maclure  compared 
to,  322,  323. 

CeUbacy,  conmumism,  rule  of  suc- 
cessful, '39;  Zoarites  taught,  39. 
See  also  Marriage. 

Cemetery,  Rappite,  28,  36. 

Chappelsmith,  John,  79;  artist, 
318. 

Chappelsmith,  Mrs.  John,  ento- 
mologist, 318. 

Character,  how  formed,  61,  106, 
210-213;  motto  concerning,  210; 
studies  at  New  Harmony,  82. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  Owen,  R.  D., 
effect  of  letter  to  Lincoln,  371. 

Child  labor,  age  hmit,  119;  in  Eng- 
land, 48;  legislation,  campaign 
for  53,  55;  Owen's  speech,  54; 
Peel's  factory  act,  48. 

Children,  age  when  received  by 
community,  132,  241 ;  behavior, 
119;  belonged  to  community, 
132;  Brown  criticizes  New  Har- 
mony, 145,  149;  Commimity  of 
Equality,  members  of,  108,  111; 
dancing  at  New  Harmony,  131; 
education  in  one  family,  154; 
education  of,  65,  66,  152,  259; 
fear,  effect  upon,  258-260;  lec- 
tures for,  149;  Lyell's  impres- 
sions of,  at  New  Harmony,  321 ; 
Maclure's  educational  methods, 
Owen  disapproves  of,  167,  251- 
253;  mechanics'  and  farmers', 
150;  New  Harmony  schools, 
ages  prescribed,  238;  New  Har- 
mony schools,  tuition  in,  239; 
Owen's  ideas  as  to  treatment 
of,  64,  66;  Owen's  schools,  pur- 
pose of,  213-216;  parents,  sel- 
dom seen,  243,  246;  poor,  dis- 
crimination against,  341;  Pre- 
Uminary  society,  provisions  for, 
89;  pimishment  of,  229-231; 
reading  of,  224;  rehgious  teach- 
ing of,  226-228 ;  school  repubhc, 
277-279;  schools,  centrahzation 
of,  270-272;  schools,  self-sup- 
porting, 254,  269,  270,  281; 
Spartan  system  of  education, 
267-269,  282,  283;  spiritual 
inheritances,  284,  285;  war, 
teachings  regarding,   90. 

Choate,  Senator,  Smithson  be- 
quest, 339. 


388 


INDEX 


Church,  inscription  over  door,  26 ; 
New  Harmony,  93,  101;  of 
Rappites,  16,  18,  36,  124. 

Cincinnati,  Owen-Campbell  de- 
bate, 307. 

Claremont,  community  near,  301. 

Clark,  Amos,  156. 

Clay,  Henry,  Compromise  meas- 
ure of  1850,  362,  363. 

Cliftondale,  Warren  lived  at,  305. 

Clubs,  dramatic,  5,  336,  337 ;  wom- 
an's, 5,  100,   196. 

Coeducation,  at  New  Harmony, 
189,  239. 

Colden,  Cadwallader,  Nashoba, 
trustee  of,  195. 

Commerce,  superintendent  of,  113. 

Communism,  celibacy  makes  suc- 
cessful, 39,  41;  colonies,  143, 
144;  community  near  Cincin- 
nati, 158;  Commiinity  of  Equal- 
ity, agreement,  12;  Community 
of  Equality,  organization,  104- 
111;  Cooperative,  Raffinesque's 
plan,  121,  122;  Cooperative  asso- 
ciation of  Wainborough,  lU., 
121 ;  eariy  Christian,  2 ;  El  Dora- 
do of,  73 ;  family  Uf e  opposed  to, 
40—42;  government  under,  67; 
Jesus  taught,  10;  leadership 
necessary,  40;  life  pleasant 
under,  135;  Maclviria,  112,  113; 
Mexico,  colonies  in,  307;  names 
for  towns,  121;  New  Harmony, 
communities  near,  169,  170,  172; 
New  Harmony,  criticism  of,  145; 
New  Harmony  defeat,  158-163, 
166,  173,  178-185;  New  Har- 
mony, last  evidence  of,  174; 
New  Harmony,  Owen's  address 
at  opening,  83,  84;  numbers  3 
and  4,  157,  158;  Owenite  move- 
ment, 177,  178;  pretended  at 
New  Harmony,  198;  Prelimina- 
ry society,  89-90,  159,  166,  167; 
rehgious  associations  success- 
ful, 37,  40;  Zoar,  8. 

Constantinople,  Raffinesque,  birth- 
place of,  77. 

Constitution,  Cooperative  asso- 
ciation of  Wainborough,  lU., 
121;  educational  provisions  in 
Indiana,  347,  351-357;  Feiba 
PeveU,  115,  116;  Indiana,  25; 
Macluria,  113;  New  Harmony 
agricultural  and  pastoral  society, 
147;  New  Harmony  Community 


of  EquaUty,  105-111,  113;  Pre- 
hminary  Society  of  New  Har- 
mony, 84-90;  U.  S.,  66. 

Coolidge,  J.  K.,  superintendent, 
113. 

Cooperative  Society,  Valley  Forge, 
Pa.,  177. 

Cooper,  177. 

Cooper,  Dr.,  Smithson  bequest, 
338. 

Cooper,  John,  New  Harmony  prop- 
erty,  176. 

Corydon,  25. 

Costvune,  worn  at  New  Harmony, 
125,  129. 

Cotton,  embargo  on,  50;  industry, 
Owen's  speech  on,  54;  manu- 
facture, Owen's  connection  with, 
47-55;  Sea  island,  introduction 
of,  47;  tariff  on,  53. 

"Council  of  the  Fathers,  The," 
Macluria,  113. 

Course  of  study,  Maclure's  schools, 
254,  255 ;  New  Harmony  schools, 
236-238,  240-244,  284,  285; 
New  Lanark  schools,  223 ;  sub- 
jects to  teach,  263,  264. 

Cox,  177. 

Cox,  E.  T.,  Indiana,  State  geolo- 
gist of,  320. 

Coxsackie,  N.  Y.,  community,  177; 

.    failure,  185. 

Croghan,  George,  7. 

Cubberly,  E.  G.,  labor  notes,  301. 

Dale,  David,  manufacturer,  48. 
Dale,  Miss,  married  Robert  Owen, 

48,  49. 
Dana,  Charles  A.,  New  Harmony 

failure,  183;  socialism,  rehgious 

basis  of,  40. 
D'Arusmont,   Phiquepal,   at  New 

Harmony,  79;  marriage,  80;  R. 

D.     Owen's    opinion    of,     247; 

teacher,  208. 
Davis,    Paulina    W.,    tribute    to 

Frances  Wright,  198,  199. 
Debt,  individual,  110,  111;  Feiba 

PeveU,   116;  New  Harmony  to 

Owen  and  Maclure,  75,  137-139; 

147,   148. 
De     Garmo,      Charles,     teachers, 

Umits  of  activity,  222. 
Dickens,      Charles,      82;     attacks 

"cramming  system,"  218. 
Dickinson,  Anna,  197. 
Di vital  invention,  122. 


389 


INDEX 


Dorsey,  Mr.,  Owen's  school  sys- 
tem, in  charge  of,  165,  252; 
Owen's  steward,  173. 

Dransfield,  177. 

Dransfield,  Arthur,  Hbrarian  of 
New  Harmony  Working  Men's 
library,  27,  328,  332. 

Drawing,  Maclnre's  course  of 
study,  237. 

Dreidoppel,  315. 

Drinkwater,  Mr.,  cotton  mill,  of 
47. 

Duclos,  177. 

Dunn,  Jacob  P.,  Maclure  estate, 
324. 

Duss,  John,  career  of,  34,  35; 
Economy  (Pa.),  trustee  of,  34, 
35;  Rappite  estate,  35. 

Economy  (Pa.),  24;  last  years  of 
the  conununity,  34,  35;  Leon's 
followers  withdraw  from,  33; 
Rapp  buried  at,  36;  Rappites 
build,  32;  secession  at,  32. 

Edinburg,  "Practical  society"  of, 
112. 

Education,  centraUzation  of 
schools.,  270-272;  children,  151, 
152,  154,  259 ;  classical  opposed, 
279,  280,  287;  Community  of 
Equality,  108;  cranmaing  sys- 
tem attacked,  218;  environment 
a  factor,  212;  free  and  universal, 
4,  264-267;  Indiana,  State  Board 
of,  357;  infant,  64;  interest, 
value  of,  260;  lectures  on,  149; 
legislation  for,  in  Indiana,  340- 
359;  love  a  principle  in,  221; 
Macliire's  efforts  after  Owen's 
defeat,  254;  Maclure's  interest 
in,  74,  75,  234;  Maclure's  meth- 
od, dissatisfaction  over,  167, 
251-253;  meaning  of,  273-277; 
New  Harmony  Educational 
Society,  251 ;  New  Harmony 
schools,  course  of  study  in,  236- 
238;  New  Harmony  schools, 
factors  in,  79,  81 ;  New  Harmony 
schools,  superintendent  of,  113; 
New  Harmony  schools,  to  be 
center  of,  75,  99;  New  Lanark 
Schools,  subjects  taught,  223; 
R.  D.  Owen's  creed,  342;  Pesta- 
lozzian  movement,  second,  292, 
293;  Rappite  agreement  on,  12; 
reading,  importance  of,  224;  re- 
ligious element  in,  226-228 ;  self- 


supporting  schools,  254,  269, 
270,  281 ;  sexes,  equal  privileges 
for,  4,  100,  239,  240,  287;  Society 
of,  jealousy  toward,  148;  Society 
of,  opposes  reorganization  of  the 
community,  151;  Spartan  sys- 
tem, 267-270,  282,  283.  See 
also  Boarding  schools;  Infant 
schools ;  Kindergarten ;  Pesta- 
lozzi;  Schools. 

Edwards  cotmty  (111.),  settlement 
in,  17,  23,  30;  slavery  opposed 
by  settlement,  30. 

Elderhorst,  Dr.,  4,  319. 

Elliot,  James,  New  Harmony 
property,  176. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  3;  Owen 
and  sociaUsm,  309-311. 

Engelman,  George,  visited  New 
Harmony,  320. 

Engels,  Frederick,  tribute  to 
Robert  Owen,  43,  46. 

England,  cooperation  in,  5,  308; 
Flower's  arrival  in,  57 ;  industrial 
revolution  in,  43-52 ;  labor  legis- 
lation, 55-57;  labor  trouble,  53; 
New  Lanark  best  community 
in,  51 ;  Sea  island  cotton  intro- 
duced, 47;  slavery  rare  in,  360. 

EngUsh  Prairie,  colony  on  the 
Wabash  river,  128. 

Environment,  importance  at- 
tached to,  61,  211,  212. 

Equality,  New  Harmony  commu- 
nity of,  104-111;  not  agreeable 
to  all,  124,  126,  129,  130;  of 
labor  not  a  success,  119,  120. 

Equity,  stores,  296,  297,  300;  vil- 
lage in  Tuscarav/as  co.  (O.), 
298;  village  of  Modern  Times, 
302-305;  village  of  Utopia,  301, 
302;  villages  did  not  fail  like 
New  Harmony,  305. 

Evans,  177. 

Evans,  Frederick  W.,  political 
movement  organized,  337. 

Evans,  George  H.,  political  move- 
ment organized,  337. 

Factories,  child  labor  in,  48;  con- 
ditions in  English,  47-54;  legiS' 
lation,  53-56;  Owen  as  super- 
intendent, 47,  48;  Peel's  factory 
act,  48. 

Family,  Amana  society,  39;  chil- 
dren surrendered  under  Spar- 
tan system,  267-269,  282,  283; 


390 


INDEX 


Owen's  theory  regarding,  41, 
67;  socialism  opposed  to,  ^0-42. 

"Father  of  American  geology," 
74,  322,  335. 

"Father  of  American  zoology,'* 
75. 

Fauntleroy,  177,  182. 

Fauntleroy,  Robert  Henry,  mar- 
riage, 319;  scientist,  319. 

Fear,  effect  of,  259,  260;  punish- 
ment, which  produces,  258. 

Feiba  Peveli,  conditions  of  secur- 
ing land,  144;  formation  of,  114- 
116;  last  report  of,  174;  name, 
meaning  of,  114,  115;  Owen's 
retrospect  of,  143,  144;  Saxe- 
Weimar  visits,  127,  128;  success 
of,  162. 

Fellenberg,  Emmanuel,  Owen 
visits,  57;  respected,  124; 
school  of,  80,  215,  336. 

Fessenden,  Mr.,  negro  suffrage, 
376. 

Fish,  Lesueur's  classification,  77; 
Lesueur's  writings  on,  318;  New 
Harmony,  abundance  at,  97. 

Fiske,  John,  infancy  and  institu- 
tional life,  282. 

Flint  and  Palmer,  Owen's  con- 
nection with,  46. 

Florida,  natural  history  of,  75. 

Flower,  Edward,  England,  return 
to,  30;  slavery  opposed,  30. 

Flower,  George,  Rappite  colony 
described,  17,  18;  trustee  of 
Nashoba,  195. 

Flower,  Richard,  Edwards  co. 
(111.),  settlement  in,  30;  Har- 
monist property,  sale  of,  29,  30, 
31,  58;  slavery  opposed,  30. 

Flower,  Sarah,  wrote  hymn,  30. 

Forrestville  (Ind.),  conununity, 
177. 

Fort.     See  Granary. 

Fourier,  2;  communism  learned 
from  Owenism,  3,  310;  idealist, 
45;  teachings  criticised,  65. 

Franke,  7. 

Frankhn  community,  Owen  plan 
used,  144,  177. 

Franklin,  Dr.,  three  hours  of  labor, 
38. 

Free  Enquirer,  advocate  of  wom- 
en's rights,  197,  201;  editors, 
196,  337 ;  free  schools  urged,  266, 
341,  342;  political  movement 
outcome  of,  337. 


Free  love,  Oneida  Perfectionists 
taught,  41 ;  Owens  did  not  be- 
lieve in,  189,  191,  202. 

Freedman's  Bureau,  branch  of  U. 
S.  War  Department,  375;  R.  D. 
Owen  connected  with,  372,  375. 

Fretageot,  177. 

Fretageot,  Achilles  E.,  256. 

Fretageot,  Marie  D.,  came  to  New 
Harmony,  79 ;  Saxe- Weimar's 
account  of,^^  131-132;  teacher, 
236. 

Friends,  Society  of.     See  Quakers. 

Froebel,  kindergarten,  not  the 
founder  of,  188,  189,  287;  meth- 
ods compared  to  Owen's,  217- 
223;  methods,  religious  element 
in,  226. 

Gabriel's  Rock,  description  of,  20, 
21. 

Gage,  Matilda  Joslyn,  woman's 
suffrage,  187,  188. 

Games,  in  New  Lanark  schools, 
223. 

Garrison,  197. 

Geology,  Maclure's  work  in,  74; 
"Father  of  American,"  74;  D. 
D.  Owen's  researches,  316,  317, 
319;  State  geologists,  319; 
Troost's  studies,  79 ;  U.  S.  Geo- 
logical survey,  4,  316,  317. 

Gerhardt,  7. 

German  communists,  Harmonie, 
life  at,  28,  29;  houses  of,  still 
stand,  1,  17;  language  barrier, 
39;  paved  way  for  Owen's  ex- 
periment, 6;  prepared  for  com- 
munism, 38,  39. 

Germany,  immigration  from,  8, 
9,  23;  literature  destroyed  Pie- 
tistic  fervor,  8;  religion  in,  7, 
8,  11. 

Gex,  177. 

Girls.     See  Women. 

Glasgow,  factory  owners,  meeting 
of,  53 ;  R.  D.  Owen,  birthplace  of, 
336. 

Godwin,  Parke,  social  reformers 
divided,  2. 

Government,  Community  of 
Equality,  108-111;  Macluria, 
113;  Modern  Times,  304,  305; 
New  Harmony  community  No. 
1,  151 ;  New  Harmony  schools, 
247-250,  257,  258,  288;  of  com- 
munities,   67;   Preliminary   So- 


391 


INDEX 


ciety  of  New  Harmony,  84-90; 
rational,  66,  67;  school  at  New 
Lanark,  229-231 ;  self  govern- 
ment of  schools,  277-279;  sub- 

,     mission  to  state,   106. 

Granary,  built  like  a  fort,  17;  de- 
scription of,  97;  underground 
passage  to,  19. 

Grant,  177. 

Gray,  John  Edward,  compared 
to  Say,  76. 

Great  Britain.     See  England. 

Greek,  study  of,  opposed,  279-281. 

Greeley,  Horace,  New  Harmony 
failure,  reason  for,  183;  social- 
ism, basis  of,  40. 

Green  county  (Ohio),  Owenite 
conmiunity  in,  101. 

Greenbree,  Matilda,  marriage  of, 
191,  192. 

Greenwood,  Mr.,  R.  D.  Owen's 
story  about,  136,  137. 

Greenwood,  Miles,  story  about  his 
father,  136. 

Griscom,  Mr.,  New  Lanark,  51,  52. 

G5Tnnastics,  in  Maclure's  course 
of  study,  238. 

Hahn,  Michael,  Pietism,  leader  of, 
9;  relation  to  Rapp,  9. 

Haller,  11. 

Hamilton,  E.  H.,  criticises  Owen, 
184. 

Hamilton,  G.  W.,  New  Harmony 
failure,  184. 

Hanus,  Paul,  education,  aim  of, 
276. 

Happiness,  Commvmity  of  Equal- 
ity, object  of,  105;  conditions 
which  would  produce,  62,  65; 
New  Harmony  communism,  ob- 
ject of,  85. 

Harmonie,  buildings,  16-18;  com- 
fort in,  18,  19;  dedication  of,  7; 
descriptions  of,  15,  16,  18,  25- 
29 ;  end  foreseen,  36 ;  evidence  of 
German  thrift,  16;  financial  suc- 
cess, 23,  27,  28;  manners  and 
customs  in,  21-23;  sale  effected, 
31,  58;  sale,  reasons  for,  28,  31; 
successful  communism,  37,  38, 
39. 

Harmonists.     See  Rappites. 

Harmony.     See  Harmonie. 

Harrington,  2. 

Harris,  W.  T.,  kindergarten  intro- 
fiuced  in  public  schools,  287. 


Haverstraw,  N.  Y.,  community, 
177 ;  failure,  cause  of,  185. 

Hawthorne,  Brook  Farm  experi- 
ment, 195. 

Henderson  (Kentucky),  home  of 
Audubon,  78. 

Henrici,  Jacob,  successor  to  Rapp, 
34. 

Herbert,  WiUiam,  Rappite  church, 
18. 

Hemhutters,  cooperative  labor,  37. 

Heywoods,  Warren  Uves  with,  305. 

Hoffwyl  (Switzerland),  Owen's 
sons  in  school  at,  80,  215,  336; 
Owen  visits,  57,  215. 

Holidays,  observed  by  Rappites, 
22. 

HolUday,  John,  Harmonie,  25; 
Richard  Owen,  letter  from,  156; 
R.  D.  Owen's  autobiography, 
134;  R.  D.  Owen  in  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  340;  R.  D. 
Owen,  tribute  to,  376,  377. 

Holstein,  Duke  of,  visits  New 
Lanark,  232. 

Holyoke,  George  Jacob,  New  Har- 
mony failure,  reasons  for,  184. 

Houses,  community,  17 ;  New  Har- 
mony commtinity,  127;  Rappite, 
still  stand,  1. 

Hovey,  A.  P.,  Maclure  Ubrary 
fund,  administrator  of,  325. 

Hudson  river,  FrankMn  commun- 
ity on,  144. 

Hugo,  177. 

Hurst,  Philosophy  and  literature 
in  Germany,  8. 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  tribute  to  Owen's 
infant  school  system,  220,  221. 

Huygens,  Mr.,  131. 


Illinois,  geological  surveys,  316, 
318,  319;  Maclure  libraries  in, 
327;  school  funds,  357;  State 
geologist  of,  319. 

Illiteracy,  at  New  Harmony,  330; 
in  Indiana,   351. 

Imagination,  cultivation  of,  262, 
263. 

Indiana,  commvmistic  colonies  in, 
177,  178;  constitution,  framing 
of,  25;  Education,  State  Board 
of,  created,  357;  geological  sur- 
vey, 316;  illiteracy  in,  330,  351; 
land,  value  of,  38;  laws,  sub- 
mission to,  recommended,   106; 


393 


INDEX 


legislation  for  women,  204-208 ; 
legislature  of  1862,  372;  libra- 
ries, Maclure,  325-327,  333,  334; 
libraries,  township,  333,  357; 
Lincoln  reared  in,  361 ;  mounds 
in,  77,  318;  R.  D.  Owen  in  poli- 
tics of,  337;  pioneers  in,  16-18; 
Rappite  community,  15,  16; 
rebellion,  conditions  during,  365, 
372-375;  school  fund,  354,  357; 
school  legislation,  290;  340-359; 
slavery  legislation,  363;  Union 
reconstruction,  southern  plan 
for,  372-375;  State  geologists, 
319,  320;  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction,  355;  surplus 
revenue  fund,  344-347;  wealth 
in,  28. 

Indiana  Constitutional  convention, 
25;  free  schools,  fight  for,  340, 
347,  351-354;  R.  D.  Owen's 
tribute  to  woman,  190;  slavery 
question  in,  363;  women,  prop- 
erty rights  of,  205-207. 

Indiana  State  University,  Owen 
geological  collection,  317;  Rich- 
ard Owen  professor  in,  319. 

Indianapolis,    capital  located,   25. 

Indians,  burying  ground  at  Har- 
monie,  28;  Gabriel's  Rock  at- 
tributed to,  20;  mounds  de- 
scribed, 77,  318. 

Individualism,  origin  of,  5. 

Infant  schools,  age  admission  to, 
216,  238;  games  used  at  New 
Lanark,  222,  223;  first,  214,  286; 
New  Harmony,  4,  238,  241 ;  New 
Lanark,  214-223;  purpose  of, 
218;  Spartan  system  for,  267- 
269,  282,  283;  teachings  in,  219- 
223.  <See  aZso  Boarding  schools; 
Education;  Kindergarten;  Pes- 
talozzi;  Schools. 

InfideUty,  at  New  Harmony,  82, 
83,  101;  Owen  charged  with,  51. 
See  also  ReUgion. 

Inventions,  divital,  byRaffinesque, 
122;  Owen's,  132. 

Iowa,  Amana  society  in,  39. 

Iverdun,  Pestalozzi's  school  at, 
79. 

Jackson,  President,  friend  of 
Owen's,  308. 

Jacobi,  leadership  in  communism, 
40;  marriage  sacrificed  to  com- 
munism, 41. 


Jardins  des  Plantes,  Lesueur's  con- 
nection with,  77. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  U.  S.  consti- 
tution, opinion  of,  66. 

Jennings,  R.  L.,  Community  of 
Equahty  constitution,  105; 
Sax e- Weimar's  account  of,  125. 

Jennings,  Robert,  Nashoba,  trus- 
tee of,  195. 

Johnson,  177. 

Jones,  partner  of  Owen's,  46. 

Jones,  Lloyd,  tribute  to  Owen, 
311-313. 

Jordan,  Dr.,  RaflSnesque,  77-79. 

Just,  Baron,  visits  New  Lanark, 
232. 

Keil,  Dr.,  Philipsburg  colony,  33. 

KeUy,  Abby,  197. 

Kendal   (Ohio),   community,   177.. 

Kent,  D\ike  of,  Owen  acquitted 
of  infidehty  charge,  51. 

Kentucky,  State  geologist  of,  319. 

Kindergarten,  methods  of  Froebel 
and  Owen  compared,  216-223; 
Owen  foimder  of,  214,  215,  218- 
220,  286,  287;  part  of  the  pubUc 
school  system,  287;  a  prepara- 
tory school,  219;  purpose  of, 
217;  teachings  of  criticised,  58. 
See  also  Boarding  schools;  Edu- 
cation; Infant  schools;  Pesta- 
lozzi;  Schools. 

Kingsle}',  J.  S.,  tribute  to  Say,  76. 

Labor,  cooperative,  5,  38,  43,  185, 
301,  308,  312;  factory,  44-52; 
"labor  notes,"  5,  296,  297,  301; 
motive  necessary,  118;  not 
equally  shared,  120;  occupa- 
tional communities,  144;  riots, 
53 ;  shorter  hours  advocated,  54. 
See  also  Child  labor. 

Laboring  class,  condition  in  Eng- 
land, 44-52;  legislation  for,  55, 
56,  212;  Maclure's  regard  for, 
324,  325;  New  Lanark  mills, 
49-52;  Owen's  speech  concern- 
ing, 53,  54;  Peel's  factory  act, 
48;  riots  of,  53. 

Lafayette,  Gen.,  193;  solitary  con- 
finement cruel,  200;  trustee  of 
Nashoba,  195. 

Land,  disposal  of,  at  New  Har- 
mony, 175,  176;  dissatisfaction 
among  societies  over,  154;  for 
Mechanics    society,     147,     148; 


393 


INDEX 


for  School  society  and  Pastoral 
society,  148 ;  secured  by  Macluria 
and  Feiba  Peveli,  144;  terms 
upon  which  Owen  granted,  183. 

Lane,  Charles,  family  Ufe,  41,  42. 

Languages,  in  Maclure's  course  of 
study,  238;  opposition  to  classi- 
cal education,  279-281,  287,  288. 

Latin,  study  of,  opposed,  279-281. 

Latitude,  Whitwell's  scheme  for 
geographical  names,  114,  115. 

Law,  concerning  slavery,  362,  363 ; 
in  New  Harmony  Community 
of  Equality,  108;  labor  legisla- 
tion, 56;  libraries,  in  Indiana, 
333,  357 ;  liquor  traffic,  prohibi- 
tion of,  5 ;  Peel's  f actory^act,  48 ; 
school  legislation  in  Indiana, 
340-359 ;  women,  legislation  for, 
5,  186,  200,  204-208. 

Lee,  Gen.,  invasion  of  Maryland, 
366. 

Lentz,  Jonathan,  mission  to  New 
Harmony,  36. 

Leon,  Count  Maximilian  de,  ab- 
sconds, 33;  death  of,  33;  mar- 
riage permitted  by,  33;  Philips- 
burg  colony,  33 ;  secession  among 
Rappites,  causes,  32,  33. 

Leonard,  L.  R.,  New  Harmony 
failure,  184. 

Lesquereux,  Leo,  4;  fossil  botanist, 
318. 

Lesueur,  Charles  Albert,  4,  314; 
accompanies  Prince  Maximilian 
von  Neuweid,  315;  curator  at 
Havre,  318;  engraving  by,  76; 
painter,  337;  Saxe- Weimar  de- 
scribes, 132,  133 ;  scientific  work, 
318;  sketch  of,  77;  teaches  draw- 
ing, 242. 

Lewis,  Warner  W.,  124;  Commun- 
ity of  Equality,  105;  secretary 
of  New  Harmony,  113. 

Liberty  Land  Co.,  purchased  Rap- 
pite  estate,  35. 

Libraries,  local  historical  collec- 
tions for,  332;  Maclure,  disap- 
pearance of,  333,  334;  Maclure, 
established  by,  5,  256,  322-328, 
330-334;  Maclure  gifts,  effect 
of,  289,  333,  334;  Maclure,  list 
of,  325-327;  A.  Maclure,  321; 
New  Harmony  Workingmen's, 
1,  36,  76,  256,  323,  327-332; 
township,  in  Indiana,  333,  357. 

Lichtenberger,  177. 


Lincoln,  Abraham,  5;  Indiana, 
reared  in,  361 ;  hatred  of  slavery, 
362;  R.  D.  Owen  compared  to, 
360-362;  R.  D.  Owen's  letter 
to,  366-371 ;  sixty  day  notice 
to  the  south,  366,  369. 

Linton,  Edward,  cares  for  Warren, 
306;  Modern  Times,  success  of, 
303;  tribute  to  Warren,  304. 

Liquor  traffic.     See  Temperance'. 

Literature,  Pietistic  fervor  de- 
stroyed by,  8,  9;  superintend- 
ent of,  113. 

Locofoco  party,  337. 

London,  attempt  to  establish 
colony  in,  232. 

Long,  expedition  to  Rocky  Moun. 
tains,  75. 

Long  Island,  Modern  Times  site 
of,  302. 

Longitude,  Whitwell's  scheme  for 
geographical  names,  114,  115. 

Lundy,  197. 

Lycoming  county  (Penn.),  11. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  4;  New  Har- 
mony, impressions  of,  320,  321. 

Lyon,  L.,  engraver,  76. 

Lyon,  Sidney,  geologist,  319. 

Lyons,  177. 

McDonald,  Capt.,  presents  com- 
munity model,  101,  102. 

Macdonald,  A.  J.,  American  com- 
munities, 177;  New  Harmony 
community  failure,  178-183; 
Owen,  Maclure  quarrel,  cause  of, 
165. 

McDonald,  Donald,  Community 
of  Equality  constitution,  105, 
112;  Macluria,  113;  sketch  of, 
112. 

Machinery,   crusades  against,   53;. 
labor  saving,  56 ;  supplants  man- 
ual labor,  44. 

Maclure,  Alexander,  318,  321 ;  W. 
Maclure's  will,  executor  of,  325. 

Maclure,  Mary,  W.  Maclure's  will, 
executor  of,  325. 

Maclure,  Wilham,  agricultural 
school,  74;  centralization  of 
schools,  270-272;  classical  edu- 
cation opposed,  279-281 ;  col- 
lection of,  4,  317;  communistic 
failure,  charged  to,  252,  253; 
death  of,  323;  education,  free 
and  universal  advocated,  264- 
267;  education,  impetus  to,  314. 


394 


INDEX 


educational  efforts  at  New  Har- 
mony, 236,  254-256;  estate, 
324 ;  fails  to  do  educational  work 
guaranteed  to  Owen,  251,  252; 
hatred  of  non-productive  class, 
324;  in  Mexico,  255,  322;  in- 
vestments at  New  Harmony,  75 ; 
libraries,  5,  256,  289,  322-328, 
333,  334 ;  manual  training,  cham- 
pion of,  4,  242,  261;  Nashoba, 
trustee  of,  195;  natural  science 
as  a  study,  262;  New  Lanark, 
visit  to,  232 ;  "  Opinions  on  var- 
ious subjects,"  234;  Owen, 
opinions  in  common,  233,  244; 
Owen,  quarrel  with,  163-165; 
Pestalozzian  school  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 235;  Pestalozzian  system, 
introduced  by,  3,  235,  287; 
Pestalozzian  system,  opinion  of, 
234,  235,  283,  284;  Philadelphia 
Academy  of  Natural  Science,  4, 
74;  philanthropy,  effect  of,  334, 
335 ;  punishment,  258-260 ;  Rapp 
mansion,  124;  reUgion,  opposi- 
tion to,  257;  Saxe-Weimar 
visits,  129,  130,  131;  schools, 
course  of  study,  236-238; 
schools,  withdraws  support 
from,  255 ;  security  for  sums  due, 
129;  self-supporting  scheme  for 
schools,  254,  269,  270,  284; 
sketch  of,  73-75;  Spartan  sys- 
tem, 267-269,  282,  283;  will, 
324,  325;  Workingmen's  Insti- 
tute and  Library,  256,  323. 

Maclure's  Seminary,  announce- 
ment of,  254. 

Macluria,  breaks  up,  151,  162,  163; 
estabUshment  of,  113;  failure, 
cause  of,  185;  government,  113; 
land,  conditions  of  securing, 
144;  Owen's  retrospect  of,  142, 
143;  Saxe-Weimar  visits,  127, 
128 ;  success  of  community  Nvun- 
ber  2,  120;  women,  treatment 
of,  113. 

McNamee,  Dr.,  conducts  Saxe- 
Weimar,  127. 

Madison,  opinion  of  U.  S.  constitu- 
tion, 66. 

Madison,  Union  members  of  In- 
diana legislature  retire  to,  372. 

Maidlow,  James,  New  Harmony 
property,  176. 

Manchester,  hterary  society,  48; 
Owen's  business  in,  47-49. 


Mann,  Horace,  351 ;  in  Pestalozzian 
movement,  292. 

Manual  training,  colonies  for  poor, 
56;  criticism  of,  139;  first  school, 
244 ;  in  Maclure's  course  of  study, 
238;  Maclure's  schools  after  the 
community  failure,  254,  255; 
school  at  New  Harmony,  4,  241- 
244;  self-supporting  scheme, 
242,  254,  269,  270,  281 ;  value  of, 
261;  Warren's  experiments  in 
teaching,  298. 

Manvifacturing,  buildings  for,  16, 
17;  legislation  governing,  55, 
56;  market  for,  38;  New  Har- 
mony, 94-96;  Owen's  career 
in,  47-56 ;  success  of  New  Lanark 
mills,  50-52;  superintendent  of, 
113;  woolen  factory,  13. 

Marriage,  agreement  concerning, 
12;  civil  contract  for,  191,  192, 
202;  evils  of,  146;  Leon  permits, 
33;  New  Harmony,  first  at,  100; 
not  practiced,  13;  Owen's  48, 
49;  Owen's  ideas  on,  132,  190, 
191 ;  R.  D.  Owen's  opinion  of, 
201 ;  Rappites  renounce,  10;  sac- 
rificed for  communism,  40-42; 
successor  to  Rapp  a  married 
man,  34;  Zoarites  permit,  39. 
See  also  Celibacy. 

Mason,  Dr.,  Warren's  musical  no- 
tation, 300. 

Mason,  LoweU,  Pestalozzian  move- 
ment, 292. 

Masons,  lodge  at  New  Harmony, 
99,  100. 

Massachusetts,  wealth  in,  28. 

Mathematics,  in  Maclure's  course 
of  study,  237. 

Maximihan,  Prince  Alexander 
PhiUpp.  See  Neuweid,  Prince 
Maximihan   Alexander   Phihpp. 

Maximilian,  Prince  John,  visits 
New  Lanark,  232. 

Mechanics  society,  land  secured, 
147,  148;  trouble  in,  149. 

Meek,  Rev.,  performs  marriage 
ceremony,  100. 

Meek,  F.  B.,  4;  paleontologist,  318. 

"  Mental  independence.  Declara- 
tion of,"  146;  importance  of, 
153,  155. 

Metcalf ,  Kate,  nursed  Warren,  306. 

Mexico,  communistic  colonization 
of,  307 ;  Maclure  in,  255,  322. 

Mills,    Caleb,    credit    for    Indiana 


395 


INDEX 


school  system,  357,  358;  school 
reorganization  in  Indiana,  351. 

MiUtia,  New  Harmony,  99 ;  Owen's 
suggestions  for,  90. 

Missouri,  Bethel  community  in, 
33;  Lesueur  examines  mines  in, 
133;  School  funds,  357. 

Minerva  society,  196. 

Mississippi  river,  20,  315;  trade  on, 
31. 

Modern  Times,  name  changed,  303 ; 
village  of,  302-306. 

Monetary  systems,  divital  inven- 
tion of  Raffinesque,  122;  Owen 
inveighs  against,  64. 

Monroe,  opinion  of  U.  S.  constitu- 
tion, 66. 

Moore,  2. 

Moravians,  cooperative  labor,  37; 
New  Harmony  conamunity 
housed  hke,  127;  religious  basis 
of  society  of,  2. 

Morf,  Pestalozzi's  method,  225. 

Morton,  Gov.,  legislature  refuses 
to  receive  message  of,  372 ;  R.  D. 
Owen  commissioned  to  purchase 
arms,  365. 

Miiller,,  Bernhard.  See  Leon, 
Count  Maximilian  de. 

Mumford,  177. 

Murphy,  177. 

Murphy,  Dr.,  New  Harmony 
Workingmen's  Ubrary,  gifts  to, 
329,  330;  sketch  of,  329. 

Musevmi,  containing  collection  of 
Say  and  Maclure,  4,  317;  exempt 
from  taxation,  320. 

Music,  among  the  Rappites,  22; 
concert  described  by  Saxe- 
Weimar,  125;  in  Maclure 's 
course  of  study,  237;  orchestra 
leader,  35;  Owen's  suggestions 
on,  91;  Warren's  Mathematical 
notation,  300;  weekly  concerts, 
135,  139. 

Names  (geographical),  suggested 
for  cooperative  communities, 
121;  Whitewell's  scheme  for, 
114,  115. 

Nashoba  (Tenn.),  community,  177, 
360 ;  failure,  cause  of,  184 ;  sketch 
of,  194-196;  similar  to  Brook 
Farm,  195. 

Nashoba  Gazette,  196. 

National  Woman  Suffrage  Asso- 
ciation, 198. 


Natural  history.    See  Zoology. 

"  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,"  author 
of,  30. 

Neef,  177. 

Neef,  Joseph,  assisted  by  daughters 
and  son,  241;  atheism  causes 
failure  of  school,  235;  author,  3, 
290,  291;  classical  education 
opposed,  279-281 ;  education, 
meaning  of,  273 ;  education,  plan 
of,  272-274;  goes  to  New  Har- 
mony, 79;  R.  D.  Owen's  de- 
scription of,  247;  Pestalozzi 
recommends,  234,  235 ;  Pestaloz- 
zian  system,  introduction  of, 
3,  79,  80,  235;  Pestalozzian  sys- 
tem ranked  too  high,  283,  284; 
principal  of  New  Harmony 
school,  241 ;  schools  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 235 ;  self-governed  schools, 
277,  278;  teaching  renounced, 
235. 

Neef,  Mrs.  Joseph,  conducts  infant 
school  at  New  Harmony,  241; 
sketch  of,  241. 

Negroes,  emancipation  proclama- 
tion, 371 ;  Freedman's  Bureau  for 
372,  375;  R.  D.  Owen  urges 
emancipation  of,  366-371;  re- 
strictions as  to  membership  at 
New  Harmony,  85;  slavery  of, 
360;  suffrage  of,  376. 

Neuhoff,  Pestalozzi's  school  at, 
219. 

Neuweid,  Prince  Maximilian  Alex- 
ander PhiUpp,  4;  birds,  collec- 
tion of,  316;  scientific  research 
in  America,  314,  315. 

New  England,  anti-slavery  move- 
ment in,  371 ;  effort  to  recon- 
struct the  Union  omitting,  371- 
375;  Pestalozzian  movement  in, 
292,  293;  schools,  240. 

New  Harmony,  abohtion  move- 
ment at,  5,  188;  age  at  which 
children  were  received,  238; 
anarchy,  113;  Brown's  exper- 
iences in,  137,  140;  character 
of  members,  82,  83;  commun- 
ities near,  169,  170,  172;  com- 
munity failure  explained,  178- 
185;  commvmity  instituted,  72, 
81 ;  community  Number  1,  plans 
for,  151;  Community  of  Equal- 
ity, 104-111 ;  compared  to  Brook 
Farm,  2,  3;  costume  worn,  125; 
crowded    condition,    116;    debt 


396 


INDEX 


to  Owen  and  Maclure,  138;  de- 
feat acknowledged,  159-161; 
description  of,  in  New  Harmony 
Gazette,  93-102;  dissatisfaction 
at,  145,  157,  158;  division  at- 
tempted, 119,  120;  education 
at,  79,  80;  educational  experi- 
ments, acceptable  features  of, 
285-293;  estate  passes  to  in- 
dividuals, 176;  experiences  of  a 
pupU  in  the  schools,  245,  246; 
experiment  causes  discussion, 
82;  financial  trouble  between 
Owen  and  Maclure,  163-165; 
grades  of  membership  in,  138; 
granary,  18;  illiteracy  at,  330; 
improvement  after  reorganiza- 
tion, 151-153;  in  American  his- 
tory, 3;  influence  of,  314;  jeal- 
ousy among  societies  of,  154; 
labor  not  equally  shared,  120, 
121;  Lesueur  at,  77;  Ubrary  at, 
1,  226,  323,  327-332,  334;  light 
upon  the  venture,  60-68 ;  Lyell's 
impressions  of,  320,  321 ;  Mac- 
lure's  educational  efforts  after 
the  failure  of  the  conmivmity, 
254,  255;  Maclure's  educational 
work,  dissatisfaction  with,  167, 
252,  253 ;  Maclure's  investments, 
75;  members,  119;  members  ex- 
pelled, 157,  168;  museum  site, 
4;  Owen  assumes  directorship, 
113;  Owen  attributes  failure  to 
Maclure,  252,  253;  Owen  starts 
separate  school  system,  165, 
252;  Owen's  address  at  opening 
of,  83,  84;  Owen's  reasons  for 
failure,  166-173;  Owen's  retro- 
spect of,  141-143,  154,  155; 
R.  D.  Owen's  account  of,  134- 
137;  plans  explained,  70-72; 
Preliminary  society  of,  84-91, 
104,  159,  166,  167;  present  ap- 
pearance of,  1;  purchased  by 
Owen,  58 ;  Raffinesque  a  visitor, 
77-79;  Rappite  cemetery,  28; 
Say's  work  at,  76,  77;  scientific 
center  in  America,  4,  314-321; 
schools  of,  233-293;  schools  of, 
objectionable  featiires  of,  281- 
285;  schools,  Owen's  gift  to,  173; 
schools,  results  of,  288-293; 
schools,  tuition  in,  239;  state 
geologists  from,  319,  320;  super- 
intendent elected,  113;  Time 
Store  at,  299,  300;  U.  S.  Geologi- 


cal survey,  headquarters  of, 
4,  316,  317;  visit  of  the  Duke  of 
Saxe- Weimar,  123-133;  War- 
ren's reasons  for  failure,  295, 
296;  women,  status  at,  188,  189. 

New  Harmony  Agricultural  and 
Pastoral  society,  147. 

New  Harmony  and  Nashoba 
Gazette.  See  New  Harmony 
Gazette. 

New  Harmony  Educational  So- 
ciety, biU  for,  251;  legislature 
refuses  to  incorporate,  251. 

New  Harmony  Gazette,  defeat  of 
the  community  acknowledged, 
158-162;  descriptions  of  New 
Harmony  in,  92-102,  118-120; 
editors,  135,  196;  estabhshed, 
92;  motto  of,  210;  moved  to 
New  York,  196;  New  Harmony 
after  reorganization,  151-155; 
refuses  to  pubhsh  essays  by 
Paul  Brown,  149;  title  changed, 
196. 

New  Harmony  Thespian  Society, 
dramatic  club,  5,  336,  337. 

New  Lanark,  Flower  visits,  31; 
home  of  Miss  Dale,  48;  labor- 
ing classes,  condition  of,  50; 
Maclure  visits,  232 ;  miUs  closed, 
50 ;  Owen's  purchase  of  the  mills, 
49;  Owen's  work,  results  of,  51, 
52;  schools  at,  213-233;  schools 
at  New  Harmony  coimterpart 
of  those  at,  238. 

"  New  moral  world,"  Owen's  teach- 
ings in,  59-68. 

New  Moral  World.  See  New  Har- 
mony. 

New  Orleans,  Rappite  trade  in, 
31. 

New  York,  communistic  colonies 
m,  177,  178. 

Newton,  England,  Owen's  birth- 
place, 46;  Owen's  death  occurs 
at,  312. 

Nicholas,  Grand  Duke,  asks  Owen 
to  come  to  Russia,  232. 

Nineteenth  century,  women  in, 
186. 

Nordhoff,  Economy,  33;  Har- 
monic, sale  of,  31. 

Norwood,  J.  C,  geologist,  320. 

Noyes,  John  Humphrey,  40,  41, 
184,  309;  Nashoba  community, 
195;  tribute  to  Frances  Wfight, 
197. 


397 


INDEX 


Ohio,  communistic  colonies  in, 
177,  178. 

Oneida  Perfectionists,  40;  free 
love,  41. 

Orbiston  community,  nucleus  of, 
112;  successful,  143. 

Orphans  Manual  Training  School, 
254. 

Owen,'  177. 

Owen,  David  Dale,  4;  death  of, 
319;  factor  in  education  at  New 
Harmony,  80;  Gabriel's  Rock, 
20;  scientific  work,  314,  316, 
317,  319;  State  geologist,  319; 
U.  S.  geologist,  316,  339. 

Owen,  Jane  Dale,  marriage,  319. 

Owen,  Mary,  tribute  to,  202-204. 

Owen,  Richard  Dale,  death  of, 
319;  dishonest  persons  at  New 
Harmony,  156;  factor  in  educa- 
tion at  New  Harmony,  80;  free 
schools,  266;  geological  work, 
318;  State  geologist  of  Indiana, 
319. 

Owen,  Robert,  birth,  46;  Brown's 
criticism  of,  137-140;  Campbell, 
debate  with,  307;  communistic 
failure  charged  to  Maclure,  252, 
253;    conmaunistic    failure    ex- 
plained,   178-185;   communistic 
test  at  New  Harmony,  2;  com- 
mtmity    Number    1,    150,    151; 
Conununity  of  Equahty  estab- 
lished,   104-111;    compared    to 
Pestalozzi,  215;  criticised,   145; 
death  of,  312;  "Declaration  of 
Mental  Independence  ",  146;  de- 
feat confessed,  174,  175;  direc- 
torship assimied,  113;  education 
free    and    universal    advocated 
264-267;    England,    career    in 
46-52;  England,  return  to,  307 
environment,     belief    in,     210- 
212;  estate  deeded  to  sons,  176 
failure  of,   6;  farewell   address 
166-173;   financial    losses,    176 
Fourier,   forerunner  of,   3;  free 
love,  not  a  believer  in,  189,  191 
Glasgow,     speech    at,     53,     54 
Harmonic    purchased,    31,    58 
Huxley's  tribute  to,  220;  infant 
schools,    4;    infidelity,    charged 
with,    51;    inventions    of,    132, 
190,  191 ;  kindergarten,  founder 
of,     214,     215,     218-221;    labor 
legislation  secured,  55,  56;  "la- 
bor notes,"   5;  land   contracts. 


147,  148;  last  years,  308-313; 
leaves  New  Harmony,  173; 
Maclure,  opinions  in  common 
with,  233,  234;  Maclure's  educa- 
tional work,  dissatisfaction  with, 
167,  251,  252;  marriage,  48,  49; 
marriage,  love,  ideas  on,  132; 
medal  from  Saxony,  232 ;  Mexico, 
communities  planned  for,  307; 
Nashoba,  trustee  of,  195;  New 
Harmony,  address  at  opening 
of,  83,  84;  New  Harmony,  de- 
feat at,  158-162;  New  Harmony, 
return  to,  104;  New  Harmony 
scheme,  69-72;  New  Lanark, 
results  at,  49-52;  New  Lanark, 
return  to,  91 ;  "  New  Moral 
World,"  59-68;  not  an  educator 
in  modern  sense,  213;  Owenism, 
outgrowth  of,  177,  178;  Pariia- 
ment,  defeated  for,  57;  perma- 
nent community,  retrospect  of, 
141-143,  154,  155;  Pestalozzian 
system,  introduction  of,  3; 
Pestalozzi's  methods  adopted 
at  New  Lanark,  225;  private 
life,  189 ;  purpose,  211 ;  Rappites, 
character  of,  27;  religion  ac- 
cepted, 311;  religion  omitted 
from  educational  methods,  226- 
227;  religious  principles,  57, 
227,  257;  religious  views  attract 
followers,  82,  83 ;  religious  views 
cause  defection,  112;  Saxe- 
Weimar's  impressions  of,  123- 
133;  school  system,  estabhshes 
separate,  165,  252;  schools  at 
New  Harmony,  gift  to,  173; 
"social  system,"  birthplace  of 
great  movements,  3-6;  sums 
due,  security  for,  129;  Taylor, 
land  sale  to,  1 56 ;  veto  power  of, 
119. 
Owen,  Robert  Dale,  "An  outline 
of  the  system  of  education  at 
New  Harmony,"  213;  arms, 
commissioned  to  purchase,  365; 
autobiography,  134;  birth  of, 
336;  Congress,  member  of,  338, 
339;  creed  of,  342;  death  of, 
376;  discipline,  methods  of, 
247-250;  editor,  135,  196,  337; 
Fellenberg's  school,  student  in, 
57,  80,  124,  189,  336;  gift  of 
Indiana  women  to,  208;  Har- 
monic, chooses,  58;  Harmonic, 
description    of,    28,    29;    home 


398 


INDEX 


life,  202-204;  Indiana  constitu- 
tional convention,  member  of, 
190,  205-207,  340,  347,  351- 
354,  363;  Indiana  legislature, 
member  of,  204-208,  340,  344- 
347,  355-359;  Indiana  school 
system,  father  of  290,  357,  358; 
institutional  development,  314; 
library  law,  sponsor  for,  333; 
Lincoln,  comparison  with,  360- 
362;  Lincoln,  letter  to,  366-371; 
marriage  of,  201,  202;  marriage, 
sacredness  of,  201 ;  mind  de- 
ranged, 376;  Naples,  charge 
d'affaires  at,  359;  Nashoba, 
trustee  of,  195,  196;  negro 
suffrage,  opposed,  376;  New 
Harmony,  account  of,  134-137; 
New  Harmony  defeat,  158-162, 
182,  185;  New  Harmony,  factor 
in  education  at,  80;  New  Har- 
mony, goes  to,  80,  81,  104; 
New  Harmony  schools,  246- 
251;  reading,  children's,  224; 
school  government  at  New 
Lanark,  229-231 ;  schools,  free, 
advocated,  4,  266,  290,  340- 
359;  slavery  opposed,  5,  188, 
360-376 ;  Smithsonian  institu- 
tion, 4,  338,  339 ;  Southern  recon- 
struction of  the  Union  opposed 
373-375;  spiritualism  accepted, 
359,  360;  spiritualism,  books  on, 
360;  tribute  to,  376,  377;  War- 
ren's plans,  interest  in,  297; 
woman,  tribute  to,  190;  women, 
legal  rights  of,  5,  187,  204-208. 

Owen,  Rosamond  Dale,  tributes 
to  father  and  mother,  202-204. 

Owen,  WiUiam,  commerce,  super- 
intendent of,  113;  Community 
of  EquaUty  constitution,  105; 
editor,  196;  education  at  New 
Harmony,  factor  in,  80;  New 
Harmony  defeat,   158-162. 

Owenism,  communities  the  out- 
growth of,  177,  178;  exposition 
in  constitution  of  "Preliminary 
Society,"  85-90;  forerunner  of 
Fouerierism,  3;  New  Harmony 
promised  land  of,  1. 

Owenites,  communities  important, 
6;  religion  opposed,  5. 

Owensville,  315. 


Page,  David,  Pestalozzian  move- 
ment, 292. 


Palmer,  Elizabeth  S.,  marriage 
of,  100. 

Parhament,  Owen  stands  for,  57. 

Parry,  C.  C,  western  flora,  319. 

Parvin,  177. 

Parvin,  Eliza  E.,  marriage  of,  191, 
192. 

Peabody,  Miss,  cooperative  labor, 
37;  kindergarten  of,  287. 

Peaceful  Revolutionist,  Warren's 
periodical,  298;  type  and  press 
for,  298. 

Pears,  Thomas,  Conununity  of 
Equahty  constitutional  conven- 
tion, 105. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  factory  bill,  48, 
56. 

Pelham,  177. 

Pelham,  W.,  Owen,  opinion  of,  84, 

Pelham,  W.  C,  New  Harmony 
property,  176. 

Pennsylvania,  botanical  research 
in,  78;  communistic  colonies  in, 
177,  178;  Rappites  return  to, 
32. 

Perouse,  Lesueur  accompanied, 
133. 

Pestalozzi,  education,  meaning  of, 
273,  274;  infant  school,  219; 
Maclure  visits,  74,  235 ;  Maclure's 
opinion  of,  234,  235;  methods, 
225 ;  methods  at  New  Harmony, 
256,  257;  methods,  religious 
element  in,  226 ;  Owen  a  follower 
of,  215,  216;  Owen  compared  to, 
215;  second  movement,  292, 
293 ;  self-supporting  schools, 
269;  system  introduced  in 
America,  3,  74,  75,  79,  235,  287, 
291,  292;  system,  rated  too  high, 
283,  284.  See  also  Boarding 
schools ;  Education ;  Infant 
schools;  Kindergarten;  Schools. 

Philadelphia,  birthplace  of  Say, 
75;  Maclure  resided  in,  73; 
Pestalozzian  school  near,  235; 
Raffinesque  in,  78,  79;  school 
for  girls,  240. 

PhiUpsburg,  Leon  community  at, 
33. 

Philosophers,  teachings  of,  65. 

Phiquepal,  M.,  teaches  farming, 
242.- 

Pierce,  President,  R.  D.  Owen 
sent  to  Naples,  359. 

Pietism,  leaders  of,  9;  Puritanism, 
prototype  of,  7. 


399 


INDEX 


Pioneers,  in  Indiana,  16,  17,  18. 

Pittsburg,  27,  315. 

Plato,  2;  teachings  criticised,  65. 

"Pocahontas,"  R.  D.  Owen's 
play,  336. 

Politics,  R.  D.  Owen  in  Indiana, 
337;  working  man's  party,  337. 

Poor,  colonies  for,  56. 

"Practical  society,"  of  Edinburg, 
112. 

Pratt,  John,  Owen's  idea  of  so- 
ciety, 183. 

Preliminary  Society  of  New  Har- 
mony.    See  New  Harmony. 

Price,  Dr.  Philip  M.,  Community 
of  Equality,  105;  marriage  of, 
191,  192. 

Price,  Dr.  WiUiam,  superintend- 
ent, 113. 

Princeton  (Ind.),  315;  Macliu-e 
hbrary,  334. 

Princeton  road,  community  on, 
162. 

Printing,  in  New  Harmony  schools, 
243;  Warren's  inventions  for, 
298-300. 

Property,  community  Niimber  1, 
151 ;  Community  of  Equality 
held  in  common,  105-107;  Har- 
monic, value  at,  23,  28;  in- 
dividual not  held  by  Rappites, 
19;  Maclure's  estate,  324;  mar- 
ried women's,  189,  200,  201, 
204-208;  New  Harmony,  in- 
dividuals get,  176;  Owen  com- 
munities might  not  divide,  144; 
Owen's  losses,  176;  private, 
evils  of,  146;  private,  to  be  aban- 
doned, 66;  taxed  for  Indiana 
schools,  356. 

Providence,  high  school  for  boys 
and  girls,  240. 

Public  instruction.  Superintend- 
ent of,  office  created  in  Indiana, 
355. 

Punishment,  corporal  forbidden, 
248;  in  New  Harmony  schools, 
257,  258 ;  in  New  Lanark  school, 
229-231;  Owen's  paper  on,  312; 
R.  D.  Owen's  mode  of  disciphne, 
247-250. 

Puritanism,  Pietism  prototype  of, 
7. 


Quakers,  aid  Owen,  51 ;  civil  mar- 
riages of,  132;  Say  member  of, 
75. 


Raffinesque,  Constantine,  4;  co- 
operative association,  122;  dlvi- 
tal  invention,  122;  sketch  of, 
77-79. 

Rapp,  Frederick,  1 1 ;  chose  land 
on  Wabash  river,  14;  death  of, 
24;  sketch  of,  24,  25. 

Rapp,  George,  brought  before  the 
king,  11;  community  excites 
wonder,  18;  Community  of 
Equality  agreement,  12;  com- 
munity site,  11;  death  of,  34; 
garden,  symbol  of,  26;  Har- 
monic, reasons  for  sale,  31; 
Harmonists  allegiance  to,  16; 
leader,  success  as,  19,  20;  mar- 
riage renounced,  10;  Rappite 
leader,  7;  F.  Rapp's  connection 
with,  24,  25;  religious  freedom 
sought,  9;  religious  views,  9-11; 
residence,  17;  revered  as  a 
prophet,  13;  sketch  of,  9;  suc- 
cess of,  6;  teachings  of,  21. 

Rappites,  agreement,  12;  build- 
ings, 16,  17,  18;  celibacy,  cause 
of  success,  39;  character  of,  27; 
churches  of,  16,  18;  communi- 
cation with  world,  18;  commun- 
ity, end  of,  35;  cooperative 
labor,  37,  38;  creed,  not  writ- 
ten, 9;  death  rate,  16;  dress  of, 
23;  Economy,  removal  to,  32; 
German  peasants,  7;  Harmony, 
founders  of,  2;  importance  of, 
6;  land,  value  of,  38;  manners 
and  customs,  22-24;  marriage 
renovmced,  10,  12;  Pennsyl- 
vania site,  13;  property,  in- 
dividual, not  held,  19 ;  property, 
sale  of,  14,  35;  prosperity  of, 
12,  13;  Rapp,  love  for,  19,  20; 
F.  Rapp's  connection  with,  24- 
27;  records  not  kept,  15;  re- 
hgion,  20;  religious  basis  of  so- 
ciety, 2,  38;  secession  among, 
32,  33;  squatters  feared,  17; 
superstitions,  20,  72;  wealth  of, 
27-29,  34,  35,  39;  ZeUenople, 
colony  near,  11. 

Reading,  age  at  which  children 
should  be  taught,  224;  impor- 
tance of,  224. 

Reformers,  social,  classes  of,  2. 

Religion,  communistic  experi- 
ments, 37,  40;  education,  im- 
portance in,  227,  228;  evils  of, 
146;  free-thinkers  attracted  to 


400 


INDEX 


New    Harmony,    82,    83;    Ger 
many,  state  of,  7,  8;  Macluria, 
cause   of   formation,    112,    128 
Macluria  disrupted  by,  151,  162 
163;  Mexico,  toleration  in,  307 
New     Harmony     failure,     183 
New  Harmony,  services  at,  101 
opposed  at  New   Harmony,   5 
Owen  accepts,  311;    Owen  and 
Macliire     reject,      257;     Owen- 
Campbell,  debate  307;  Owen's, 
57,  65,    66;    Rappites,    observ- 
ances of,  21,  22,  24,   26;  spirit- 
ual inheritances  of  the  race,  284, 
285;  teaching,  omitted  by  Owen, 
226-227.     See    also     Infidelity; 
Spiritualism. 

Rensselaer  Institute,  compared  to 
New  Harmony,  244,  245. 

Republic,  Plato's,  2. 

Richardson,  James,  Nashoba,  trus- 
tee of,  195. 

Riots,  in  1811,  53. 

Robinson,  Mary,  marriage  of,  201, 
202.      See  also  Owen,  Mary. 

Robson,  177. 

Robson,  Robert,  marriage  of,  191, 
192. 

Rose,  Ernestine  L.,  woman's 
rights  advocated,  187;  Frances 
Wright,  tribute  to,  197,  198. 

Runcie,  Mrs.  Constance  Fauntle- 
roy,  Minerva  society,  founder 
of,  196. 

Rush,  Richard,  Smithson  be- 
quest, 338. 


St.  Louis,  kindergarten  in  public 
schools,  287. 

St.  Simon,  2;  socialism  advocated, 
45. 

Salmon,  Alfred,  marriage  of,  100. 

Sampson,  177. 

Sampson,  James,  scientific  col- 
lection, 318. 

Sargant,  Owen's  infant  school 
system,  220;  Owen's  reUgious 
acceptance,  311 ;  rehgion  at  New 
Harmony,  183. 

Satterfield,  Mr.  46. 

Saxe-Weimar,  Duke  of,  Gabriel's 
Rock,  theory  of,  21;  New  Har- 
mony schools,  243,  244;  New 
Harmony  visited,  123-133. 

Saxony,  presents  medal  to  Owen 
232. 

Say,  Thomas,  4,  314;  collection  of. 


4,  317;  New  Harmony  schools, 
in  charge  of,  251,  255;  Saxe- 
Weimar 's  impressions  of,  126; 
scientific  work,  75,  76;  sketch 
of,  75,  77;  teacher,  236,  242; 
tributes  to,  76,  77. 

Say,  Mrs.  Thomas,  draws  plates 
for  Say's  books,  76. 

Schmidt,  131. 

Schnack,  Dr.,  New  Harmony 
family  names,  177;  New  Har- 
mony theatre,  36;  D.  D.  Owen's 
geological  work,  317;  owners 
at  New  Harmony,  176;  Prince 
Maximihan  von  Neuweid's 
book,  315;  Rappites  gave  library 
building,  36;  scientists,  318. 

Schnee,  177. 

Schnee,     Jacob,     New    Harmony 

Eroperty,  176. 
ool    repubUc,    Neef's    scheme 
for,  277-279. 

Schoolcraft,  H.  R.,  Gabriel's 
Rock,  20,  21. 

Schools,  centralization  of,  270- 
272;  common  school  fund  in 
Indiana,  354,  357;  common 
school  system  at  New  Harmony, 
4,  239;  course  of  study  at  New 
Harmony,  236-238;  free,  264- 
267,  287;  free,  legislation  for 
in  Indiana,  265,  266,  340-359; 
higher  at  New  Harmony,  241, 
242 ;  in  shoe  factory,  1 50 ;  Indiana, 
347-351 ;  industrial,  287 ;  kinder- 
garten in  pubUc,  287 ;  legislation 
urged,  55;  Maclure's  beUef  in, 
234;  Maclure's  efforts  after 
Owen's  defeat,  254,  255;  mis- 
sion of,  273-277 ;  New  Harmony, 
91,  93;  New  Harmony,  results 
at,  288-293;  New  Lanark,  50, 
51,  213-233;  New  Lanark,  dif- 
ficulties at,  231;  Owen's  gift 
to  New  Harmony,  173;  Owen's 
system,  165,  252;  Pestalozzi's, 
234,  235;  Preliminary  society's 
plans  for,  89;  punishment  at 
New  Lanark,  229,  230;  religious 
prejudice  against  New  Har- 
mony, 101;  reUgious  teaching 
in,  226-228;  self-government  of, 
277-279 ;  self-supporting  scheme, 
254,  269,  270;  sleeping  arrange- 
ment at  New  Harmony,  243, 
244,  246;  Spartan  system,  267- 
269,  282,  283;  subjects  taught  at 


27 


401 


INDEX 


New  Lanark,  223;  surplus  reve- 
nue fund,  344-347;  teacher  in, 
135;  tuition  at  New  Harmony, 
239.  See  also  Boarding  schools; 
Education ;  Infant  schools ; 
Kindergartens ;  Pestalozzi. 

Science,  at  New  Harmony,  314- 
321;  Lesueur's  activity,  318; 
Maclure's  course  of  study,  237; 
D.  D.  Owen's  work,  316,  317, 
319;  researches  in,  by  Prince 
Maximilian  von  Neuweid,  314, 
315;  Sampson's  collection,  318; 
study  of,  262 ;  superintendent  of, 
113. 

Sears,  Barnas,  Pestalozzian  move- 
ment, 292. 

Separatists,  asylum  in  Russian 
Tartary,  8. 

Shakers,  land,  value  of,  38;  near 
Vincennes,  126;  religious  basis, 
2,  40. 

Shawneetown  (111.),  Rappite  store, 
31. 

Sheldon,  E.  A.,  Pestalozzian  move- 
ment, 292. 

Sicily,  78. 

Silhman's  Journal,  236,  238. 

Sistare,  Lucy,  81,  130;  wife  of  Say, 
76. 

Slavery,  abolition  favored  at  New 
Harmony,  5,  188;  Compromise 
of  1850,  362;  emancipation 
proclamation,  371 ;  English,  360; 
EngUsh  colonists  oppose,  30; 
legislation  in  Indiana,  363; 
Nashoba  solution,  194-196;  R. 
D.  Owen  opposed,  360-376; 
women  oppose,  188. 

Smith,  F.  W.,  New  Harmony  fail- 
ure, 184. 

Smithsonian  institution,  legisla- 
tion, for  4,  338,  339. 

Snelling,  177. 

Social  Science  Association  of 
Birmingham,  312. 

Socialism,  advocated,  45. 

Society,  Owen's  ideas  for  better- 
ment of,  59-68. 

Society  for  mutual  instruction, 
255;  Ubraries  modeled  after, 
289 ;  results  of,  256. 

Soper,  177. 

Sorosis,  196. 

Spiritualism,  books  on,  360;  R.  D. 
Owen  accepts,  359,  360. 

Squatters,  17,  27. 


Stanton,  Elizabeth  Cady,  woman's 
suffrage,  187,  188. 

Stanz,  Pestalozzi's  school  at,  218, 
219,  224. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  negro  suffrage, 
376. 

Stillwell,  WilUam,  342. 

Stocker,  Jonathan,  New  Harmony 
property,  176. 

Stone,  Lucy,  197. 

Suffrage,  Feiba  Peveli,  115;  negro, 
376;  women  granted,  in  Com- 
mvmity  of  Equality,  108;  women 
not  granted,  at  Macluria,  113; 
women,  why  demanded  by, 
186-188. 

Sumter,  Fort,  365,  372. 

Sunday,  Commtmity  of  Equality, 
105;  meetings  on,  158;  observ- 
ance at  New  Harmony,  101, 
129,  130;  women's  attendance 
at  meeting,  192. 

Superstition,  among  Rappites,  19, 
20,  24. 

Tariff,  on  cotton,  53. 

Taylor,  William,  Owen,  dealings 
with,  156,  182. 

Teachers,  training  school  for,  291. 

Teaching,  methods  at  New  Har- 
mony, 257;  methods  at  New 
Lanark,  51 ;  methods  in  infant 
school,  221,  222;  object  method, 
224,  257;  Pestalozzi's  methods, 
225. 

Technical  education.  See  Manual 
training. 

Temperance,  distilling  forbidden 
at  Macluria  and  Feiba  Peveli, 
144;  not  practiced  at  New  Har- 
mony, 179,  184;  Owen  forbids 
distilling,  126,  144;  prohibition, 
5;  Rappites  practice,  12;  Tay- 
lor's distillery  at  New  Har- 
mony, 156,  182. 

Tennessee,  commvmistic  colonies 
in,  177,  178;  Troost,  State  geolo- 
gist of,  79,  319. 

Terre  Haute,  site  owned  by  George 
Rapp,  38. 

Texas,  communistic  colonies  for, 
307 ;  school  funds,  357. 

Theatre,  at  New  Harmony,  36. 

Thrall,  Mrs.  Sarah  Cox,  pupil  in 
New  Harmony  schools,  245,  246. 

"Threading  my  way,"  Harmonie, 
28,  29;  New  Harmony,  134-137. 


402 


INDEX 


"Time  store,"  5;  Cincinnati,  296; 
New  Harmony,  299,  300. 

Tobacco,  use  forbidden  the  Rap- 
pi  tes,  12. 

Transylvania  imiversity,  RaflSn- 
esque  professor  in,  78. 

Troost,  Gerard,  4,  314;  brought 
to  New  Harmony,  79;  Saxe- 
Weimar  meets,  133;  State  geolo- 
gist of  Tennessee,  79,  319; 
teaches  chemistry,  242. 

Tuscarawas  county  (Ohio),  village 
of  Equity  in,  298;  Zoar  society 
in,  8,  39. 

Twigg,  177. 

Typography,  Warren's  inventions, 
298,  299. 

United  States,  Compromise  of 
1850,  362,  363;  constitution  of, 
66;  cotton,  embargo  on,  50; 
England,  relations  with,  308, 
311,  312;  industrial  schools, 
244,  245;  Maclure's  geological 
research,  74;  Owen  comes  to, 
58 ;  pubUc  schools,  240 ;  rebeUion, 
365-375;  rehgious  freedom  in, 
9;  slavery  in,  360-376;  wealth 
in,  28 ;  woman's  clubs,  5. 

United  States  Geological  s\irvey. 
See  Geology. 

Ure,  Andrew,  80. 

Utopia,  Moore's,  2;  proposed  at 
New  Harmony,  72,  234;  War- 
ren's viUage  in  Ohio,  301,  302. 

Valley  Forge  (Penn.),  community 
at,  129. 

Van  Buren,  245,  337. 

Vincennes,  315;  Rappite  store  in, 
31;  Shaker  establishment  near, 
126. 

Virginia,  Miss,  Saxe- Weimar's 
story  concerning,  129,  130,  131. 

Virginia,  Botanical  research  in, 
78;  compromise  measure  pro- 
posed, 364. 

Wabash  river,  315;  English  Prairie 
on,  128;  New  Harmony  built  on, 
1;  F.  Rapp  selects  land  on,  14; 
Rappite  conmiunity  on,  15. 

Wabash  valley,  7;  fertihty  of,  15; 
malaria,  16. 

Wainborough  (111.),  constitution 
of  the  Cooperative  Association 
of,  121 ;  formed  on  Owen  plan, 
144. 


Walker,  Francis,  76. 

Walker,  James,  76. 

War,  contrary  to  the  social  system, 
90. 

Warren,  177. 

Warren,  Josiah,  economic  thought, 
314;  individuahsm,  5;  labor  ex- 
change, 297 ;  "  Mathematical 
notation,"  300;  Modern  Times, 
village  of,  302-306;  musical 
leader,  135;  pecvmiary  affairs 
at  New  Harmony,  183;  printing 
inventions,  248-300 ;  publica- 
tions of,  298,  300,  305;  sketch 
of,  294-306;  "Time  store,"  5, 
296,  297,  300;  Tuscarawas  covm- 
ty  (Ohio),  village  in,  298;  Uto- 
pia, 301. 

Washington,  Owen's  addresses  in, 
69;  R.  D.  Owen's  geological 
collection,  317. 

Wattles,  James  O.,  Community  of 
Equality,  105. 

Wayland,  Professor,  Smithson  be- 
quest, 338. 

Wealth,  Amana  society's,  39 ;  pro- 
duction and  distribution  of,  63, 
64;  Rappites',  34,  35,  38,  39. 

Weaving,  New  Harmony,  94. 

Webb,  Sidney,  industrial  revolu- 
tion in  England,  46. 

Weimar,  Count  Bernhard  of.  See 
Saxe- Weimar,  Duke  of. 

West,  177. 

Wheatcroft,    177. 

Whitby,  Camilla  Wright,  Nashoba, 
trustee  of,  196. 

Whitby,  John,  Community  of 
EquaUty,  105. 

Whitby,  Richeson,  Nashoba,  trus- 
tee, of,  195,  196. 

Whittlesy,  Charles,  318. 

Whit  well,  Stedman,  131 ;  com- 
munity model,  101;  geographi- 
cal names,  114, 115. 

Whitwell,  Stewart,  113. 

Widows,  legal  rights  of,  205,  207, 
208;  succeeded  to  husband's 
privileges  at  New  Harmony, 
189. 

WiUiamsport  (Ind.),  Maclure  U- 
brary,  334. 

Woman's  Social  Society,  196. 

Women,  clubs,  5,  100,  196;  Com- 
munity of  Equality,  privileges 
in,  105;  equal  educational  priv- 
ileges for,  4,  100,  189,  239,  249, 


403 


INDEX 


288;  equal  rights,  65,  80,  189; 
gift  to  R.  D.  Owen,  208;  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  186;  legal 
rights  of,  5,  186,  204-208; 
Macluria,  rights  at,  113;  mar- 
ried, rights  of,  187,  189,  200, 
201,  204-208;  Owen's  attitude 
toward,  189-192;  R.  D.  Owen's 
tribute  to,  190;  sufifrage  of,  4; 
suffrage,  why  demanded,  186- 
188. 

Woods,  John,  Harmonie,  23,  24. 

Workingmen's  Institute  and  Li- 
brary, 256;  character  of  library, 
330-332 ;  historical  collection 
in,  331,  332;  provisions  for,  323, 
327-330. 

Worthen,  O.  H.,  State  geologist 
of  Illinois,  319. 

Wright,  Camilla,  193;  Nashoba, 
trustee  of,  195. 

Wright,  Frances,  abolitionist,  5, 
188,  360;  at  New  Harmony,  80; 
editor,    196,    197;    founder    of 


woman's  club,  5,  196;  marriage 
of,  80;  Nashoba  colony,  194- 
196;  sketch  of,  192-197 ;  studied 
Rappites,  194;  tributes  to,  197- 
199;  woman's  rights,  advocate 
of,  5,  80,  187,  197-199,  314. 

Writing,  in  Maclure's  course  of 
study,  237. 

Wiirtemburg,  peasants  founded 
Harmonie,  7;  recruits  from,  23; 
religion  in,  8. 

Yellow  Springs  community,   101, 

177;  failure,  184. 
Yverdun,    Pestalozzi's   school    at, 

234. 

Zelienople  (Penn.),  Rappite  colony 

near,  11. 
Zoar,  conamunistic  society,  8;  de- 

cUne  of,  40 ;  marriage  permitted, 

39. 
Zoology,    "Father  of  American," 

75;  Say's  discoveries,  75,  76. 


(1) 


404 


science;  religion,  education. 

Adolescence :  Its  Psychology  and  Its  Relations 
to  Physiology,  Anthropology,  Sociology,  Sex, 
Crime,  Religion,  and  Education. 

By  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.  Two  vols.,  royal 
8vo,  gilt  top.     Cloth,  $7.50  net. 

This  work  is  the  result  of  many  years  of  study  and  teaching.  It  is 
the  first  attempt  in  any  language  to  bring  together  all  the  best  that  has 
been  ascertained  about  the  critical  period  of  life  which  begins  with 
puberty  in  the  early  teens  and  ends  with  maturity  in  the  middle  twenties, 
and  it  is  made  by  the  one  man  whose  experience  and  ability  pre-emi- 
nently qualify  him  for  such  a  task.  The  work  includes  a  summary  of 
the  author's  conclusions  after  twenty-five  years  of  teaching  and  study 
upon  some  of  the  most  important  themes  in  Philosophy,  Psychology, 
Religion,  and  Education. 

The  nature  of  the  adolescent  period  is  the  best  guide  to  education 
from  the  upper  grades  of  the  grammar  school  through  the  high  school 
and  college.  Throughout,  the  statement  of  scientific  facts  is  followed 
systematically  by  a  consideration  of  their  application  to  education,  pe- 
nology, and  other  phases  of  life. 

Juvenile  diseases  and  crime  have  each  special  chapters.  The  changes 
of  each  sense  during  this  period  are  taken  up.  The  study  of  normal 
psychic  life  is  introduced  by  a  chapter  describing  both  typical  and  excep- 
tional adolescents,  drawn  from  biography,  literature,  lives  of  the  saints, 
and  other  sources. 

The  practical  applications  of  some  of  the  conclusions  of  the  scientific 
part  are  found  in  separate  chapters  on  the  education  of  girls,  coeduca- 
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statistics  in  American  colleges,  with  a  sketch  of  an  ideal  education  for 
girls. 

Another  chapter  treats  with  some  detail  and  criticism  the  various 
kinds  and  types  of  organization  for  adolescents  from  plays  and  games  to 
the  Y.  M,  C.  A.,  Epworth  League,  and  other  associations  devised  for 
the  young. 

The  problem  of  the  High  School,  its  chief  topics  and  methods,  is 
considered  from  the  standpoint  of  adolescence,  and  some  very  important 
modifications  are  urged.  It  closes  with  the  general  consideration  of  the 
relations  of  a  higher  to  a  lower  civilization  from  this  standpoint. 

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A  History  of  Education. 

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Thomas  Platter  and  the  Educational  Renaissance 
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The  Autobiography  of  Thomas  Platter^  written  in  1572, 
but  not  published  until  the  eighteenth  century,  furnishes 
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of  the  later  middle  ages.  There  is  scarcely  a  phase  of  the 
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though  the  results  may  at  times  be  crude.  No  apology  is 
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changes  in  education,  in  religion,  and  in  the  thought-life  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  More  is  to  be  learned  from  this 
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of  the  times  or  from  the  work  of  modern  scholars. 

"  The  life  of  a  great  scholar  and  educator  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
based  on  his  autobiography,  one  of  the  most  interesting  documents  in 
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illuminating  study  of  the  conditions  of  three  centuries  ago  from  which 
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point  between  the  medieval  and  the  modern  education,  it  depicts  both — 
the  student  in  the  former,  the  teacher  in  the  latter — and  in  its  charming 
simplicity  and  frankness  gives  one  to  see  what  great  changes  were  taking 
place.  It  is,  says  Dr.  Harris  in  its  Introduction,  'one  of  the  precious 
sources '  for  the  history  of  pedagogy,  and  one  that  gives  glimpses  of 
'  the  foundations,  laid  in  martyrs'  blood,  on  which  our  civilization  rests.* " 

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